Salsa20/12

I've been off the grid for the last couple of months, heads-down on a project. ...a fun and challenging project. Now that I've come up for air, I notice Salsa20/12 (Salsa20 with 12 rounds) has been selected one of the eSTREAM finalists. Congratulations to Daniel Bernstein.

I conclude from my re-read of the final report and other materials that Salasa20/12 is indeed the preferred software algorithm for Profile 1. Depending on where you look, Rabbit and Sosemanuk also received high marks, but it was Salsa20/12 that was consistently on top. ...and because Rabbit has commercial-use IP restrictions, Sosemanuk easily takes second place. (eSTREAM was careful not to get involved in the politics of being so explicit.)

While I've played some with Sosemanuk, I've actually been using Salsa20 for a while now. I'm pleased. One question though, ought not it be named "Salsa12" to help avoid confusion?

More on Salsa20 and other eSTREAM ciphers....
    Fast stream ciphers from eSTREAM
    Python access to CryptMT, Dragon, HC, LEX, NLS, Rabbit

Updated: 6Jun08