apache / apache/nuttx

[SECURITY] NIST / ASCON.

Open
#16,854 1 comment 0 reactions 2 assignees Claimed by @acassis View on GitHub
Area: Security Type: Enhancement
Dominant language
C
Stars
4k
Forks
1.7k
Avg merge
1d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
237

Description

### Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

@acassis noticed this nice article on "Lightweight Cryptography" from NIST [1] mentioning Ascon-Based Lightweight Cryptography Standards for Constrained Devices (NIST Special Publication 800-232 [2]).

It would be nice to have it in NuttX. But its not a trivial implementation, so probably we need to ask if MBED TLS project planning to implement ASCON features? I asked them for planing at https://github.com/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls/issues/10358 :-)

[1] https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2025/08/nist-finalizes-lightweight-cryptography-standard-protect-small-devices
[2] https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/232/final

### Describe the solution you'd like

Mbed TLS would be best source for implementation of NIST / ASCON because:
* this will be a world wide standard for embedded systems security.
* MBED TLS is already well established and recognized security-for-embedded project.
* it would be best to have one common single sourced implementation for ASCON from MBED TLS, which also assures proper security review, implementation, validation and updates.
* we already have MBED TLS support in NuttX, as probably other RTOS do, so we could update to have those new features.

### Describe alternatives you've considered

If MBED TLS does not plan to implement the ASCON we need to find alternative source projects, maybe NIST will provide the implementation?

### Verification

- [x] I have verified before submitting the report.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Assessment

This issue has not been assessed yet.

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.