SHA- 1 cryptographic algorithm, designed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Security Agency, was recommended to the US government and financial system as early as 1994, and it is the most widely used cryptographic algorithm in the US government at present.
In early 2005, Wang Xiaoyun and her research team announced that they had successfully cracked the e-mail password. "collapse! The crisis of cryptography, the American magazine New Scientist summed up Wang Xiaoyun's landmark achievements with such a shocking title. Because of the appearance of Wang Xiaoyun, the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced that the US government will no longer use SHA- 1 in five years, and replace it with a more advanced new algorithm. Microsoft, Sun, Atmel and other well-known companies have also published their own countermeasures.
Wang Xiaoyun is not tall, with short hair and thick gold-rimmed glasses. As soon as I speak, my accent has a simple Shandong flavor. 10 years, she walked on the campus of Shandong University, and few people could recognize her. Before the reporter interviewed, she had not been interviewed for half a year. Two years ago, she volunteered to speak at the International Cryptography Conference held in Santa Barbara, California, USA, and announced that she and her research team had successfully cracked the four internationally famous cryptographic algorithms MD5, HAVAL- 128, MD4 and RIPEMD.
When she announced the third grade, applause had already sounded at the meeting. After her speech, there was a long applause at the meeting. For this day, Wang Xiaoyun has been working silently for 10 years. A few months later, she deciphered the more difficult SHA- 1. Wang Xiaoyun is engaged in the research of hash function.
At present, MD5 and SHA- 1, the two most widely used cryptographic algorithms in the world, are the most important hash functions. MD5 was designed in 199 1 by Ronald L. Rivest, an internationally renowned cryptographer and professor at MIT. Behind SHA- 1 is the background of the National Security Agency.
These two algorithms are the key to international electronic signature and many other cryptographic applications. At the beginning of Wang Xiaoyun's research on hash function, although some cryptographers tried to decipher it, there was no breakthrough. Therefore, the study of hash function has become the most hopeless field for many cryptographers in the past five years.
But Wang Xiaoyun didn't believe it. She wants to know, is the hash function really as unbreakable as it looks? Wang Xiaoyun's method of cracking passwords is different from others, but for Wang Xiaoyun, computers are only an auxiliary means to crack passwords by themselves. More often, she calculates by hand. Manually design the crack path.
Yao Qizhi, a Turing Prize winner, commented on her: "She has an intuition that she can pick out the best path from thousands of possibilities." When Wang Xiaoyun led her team to end MD5, The Washington Times reported that the new decoding technology developed by China decoding experts could "attack the White House".
Wang Xiaoyun said that in the public's understanding, cryptographers are like hackers, but our work is obviously different from hackers. She said: "It is malicious for hackers to crack passwords, hoping to gain benefits by stealing information protected by password algorithms. The job of cryptanalysis scientists is to evaluate the security of a cryptographic algorithm and find a more secure cryptographic algorithm. "
Unlike the master in the TV series "plot against", Wang Xiaoyun's works are more accurately called "calculation". Wang Xiaoyun said: "Unlike the secret attacks by hackers, cryptanalysts all over the world work on an open platform. The functional method of cryptographic algorithm design and the theory of cryptographic analysis are all open. "
She said: "I went out for a meal the day I cracked SHA- 1. I am a little excited because I am the first person to know world-class secrets. " Anyone who has seen the movie U-57 1 must remember that in order to obtain the password used by the German submarine, the US military used a submarine disguised as a German submarine to steal the decoder and password book from an injured German submarine.
10, many people will think that this scientist must be a very hard worker. But to my surprise, Wang Xiaoyun said, "That 10 year was 10 year that I felt very relaxed." In the 10 year when the password was cracked, Wang Xiaoyun gave birth to a daughter and raised a balcony full of flowers.
Wang Xiaoyun said: "My scientific research is to take the children out, do housework and raise flowers." She said, "During that time, when I was doing housework with my child in my arms, the possible cracking paths of various passwords hovered in my mind, and I would record them in my computer as soon as I had an idea. I still miss 10 years of life. At that time, I will work hard for a while. If I feel tired, I will have a rest. "
On one occasion, Wang Xiaoyun took a taxi alone. She sent the taxi number to a friend on her mobile phone. My friend thought she was going to answer the phone by herself. She searched the flights and trains of the day, but couldn't find the number. Finally, she realized that this was a taxi number. This is the "clue" left by Wang Xiaoyun for fear of meeting the bad guys. Wang Xiaoyun, the person who cultivated the most wonderful fruits of cryptography, is famous all over the world, but when the reporter came to interview her during the short break of the meeting, she was still blushing with shame. ?
When the reporter asked her how to spend the bonus of 6.5438 million yuan, she said that she had not thought about it specifically, but "some of it will be invested in scientific research." Although the interview didn't go on because of time and place, the reporter was already familiar with the information about the China female scientist who subverted two international cryptographic algorithms.
Wang Xiaoyun, born in August 1966, received his doctorate in number theory and cryptography from Shandong university in August 1993 and stayed there as a teacher. The research team she led cracked MD5 and SHA- 1 in 2004 and 2005 respectively. For the first time in more than ten years, the international cryptology community was shocked by the successful cracking of cryptographic algorithms and standards widely used in the world. Two most authoritative publications in the field of cryptography, Eurocrypto and crypto, awarded the "Best Paper Award in 2005" to this China woman.
In June, 2005, Professor Wang Xiaoyun was hired as Professor Yang Zhenning of Tsinghua University and distinguished professor of Tsinghua University Yangtze River, and became the candidate of the 6th China Young Scientist Award that year.
MD5 and SHA- 1 are two commonly used cryptographic algorithms in the world. They are also key technologies in international electronic signatures and many cryptographic applications, and are widely used in e-commerce fields such as finance and securities. Because there are no two identical fingerprints in the world, handprints become the only sign to identify people. In the network security protocol, the unique "fingerprint" of electronic documents can be generated by using hash function to process electronic signatures, forming a "digital fingerprint".
Experts used to think that even if it took hundreds or thousands of years to call computers around the world, it would be difficult to find two identical "digital handprints", thus ensuring that digital signatures could not be forged. The method developed by Wang Xiaoyun team can quickly find these same digital handprints, which greatly exceeds the imagination of international colleagues. Some experts commented that this is the most wonderful achievement in the field of cryptography in recent years.
Extended data:
Professor Wang Xiaoyun, born in Zhucheng, Shandong Province, 65438-0966, cryptographer, Professor Tsinghua University, academician of China Academy of Sciences.
1983 to 1993 studied in the mathematics department of Shandong university; 1993 stayed in school to teach after graduation; In 2005, he was supported by the Outstanding Youth Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and was selected into the "Hundred Talents Program" in Tsinghua University in the same year; In June 2005, he was hired as "Professor Yang Zhenning" by the Advanced Research Center of Tsinghua University. 20 17 won the National Innovation Award in May. In August, he was co-elected as a preliminary candidate for China Academy of Sciences on 20 17, and was elected as an academician of China Academy of Sciences on 0/0.
Wang Xiaoyun is mainly engaged in the research of cryptography theory and related mathematical problems.
Wang Xiaoyun put forward the collision attack theory of cryptographic hash function, namely modular differential bit analysis method, which improved the probability of cracking five international common hash function algorithms, such as MD5, SHA- 1. A series of sub-key recovery attacks of message authentication code MD5-MAC and distinguishing attacks of HMAC-MD5 are given. A heuristic algorithm for solving the shortest vector of lattice & double screening method is proposed. China hash function standard SM3 is designed, which is widely used in the important fields of national economy such as finance, national grid and transportation.
20 18 65438+ 10 On October 29th, at the first meeting of the 17th Tianjin Municipal People's Congress, Wang Xiaoyun was elected as the representative of the 13th Tianjin Municipal People's Congress. ?
Now he is Tsinghua University's "Changjiang Scholar distinguished professor". Member of the 15th Central Committee of china zhi gong party. Deputies to the 13th National People's Congress.
On April 4th, 2065438+0814th, CCTV's series "Let's Talk about Protecting Happiness" was specially planned for the National Security Education Day. Professor Tsinghua University and cryptographer Wang Xiaoyun gave a lecture: a familiar and unfamiliar "guardian"-password!
Compared with 15 years ago, Wang Xiaoyun today may be less young and unrestrained, and more burdened and responsible. But in any case, it is doomed that her next five years will be a long-distance running full of risks and fun.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Wang Xiaoyun