Protocol variants
FIPS mode
E4's FIPS allows the application that uses it to obtain a FIPS 140-2 validation (CMVP). For this, only FIPS-compliant algorithms must be used.
In its default version, E4 uses SHA-3 (FIPS-compliant), however it uses AES in SIV mode, a mode that is not FIPS-compliant. E4's FIPS mode therefore replaces AES-SIV with AES-GCM.
In the public-key version of E4,
- Ed25519 is replaced with FIPS-compliant probabilistic ECDSA.
- Curve25519 is replaced with nistp256 for key agreement
Post-quantum mode
The post-quantum mode is a variant of the public-key version of E4 wherein elliptic-curve cryptography is replaced with post-quantum algorithms.
For signature, E4 can use Dilithium instead of ECDSA, which implies that
- Public keys are 1472-byte instead of 32-byte
- Private keys are 3504-byte instead of 32-byte
- Signatures are 2701-byte instead of 64-byte
For key agreement, E4 can use.. TBD