Nate Lawson

Timing attack in Google Keyczar library

By Nate Lawson, Root Labs
I recently found a security flaw in the Google Keyczar crypto library. The impact was that an attacker could forge signatures for data that was “signed” with the SHA-1 HMAC algorithm (the default algorithm).
Firstly, I’m really glad to see more high-level libraries being developed so that programmers don’t have to work directly with algorithms. Keyczar is definitely a step in the right direction. Thanks to all the people who developed it. Also, thanks to Stephen Weis for responding quickly to address this issue after I notified him (Python fix and Java fix).