AES Encryption Key Length Reduction Due To New Vulnerability Findings

A team of researchers has discovered a first vulnerability in the AES encryption standard that shortens the algorithm's effective key length by two bits. This means that the usual key lengths of 128, 192 and 256 bits are reduced to 126, 190 and 254 bits. Andrey Bogdanov from the Catholic University of Leuven, Christian Rechberger from ENS Paris and Dmitry Khovratovich from Microsoft Research, who discovered the hole, say that the attack has no practical relevance. Nevertheless, the findings are considered an important step in the research into the security of AES, a standard that was officially adopted in 2000.

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