CODEWITHSUNDEEP
fips
pras007
pras007

Reputation: 115

Are FIPS certified algorithms in .net framework backward compatible?

Our software is based on .net framework 4.5. We are making our application FIPS compliant. So we are replacing the older classes with FIPS compliant classes.

MD5CryptoServiceProvider -> SHA1CryptoServiceProvider
RijndaelManaged -> AesCryptoServiceProvider

But we have certain data in our database which are encrypted with older algorithm. How do I retrieve them, as we are now using newer algorithms? Are the newer algorithms backward compatible?

Thanks

Upvotes: 1

Views: 554

Answers (1)

jww
jww

Reputation: 102245

we have certain data in our database which are encrypted with older algorithm. How do I retrieve them, as we are now using newer algorithms

Upsize the data. Rather than storing just MD5(data), add an extra column to the table called upsized. If upsized = false, then calculate SHA256(MD5(data)) and store it. Finally, set upsized = true.

There's some small/trivial technical defects in the construction, but it gets you past the C&A requirements of FIPS 140-2 and the SP800-53 audit.

Upvotes: 2

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