Origin of FIPS 186-4 Elliptic Curves over Prime Field SEED Parameters (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

Steve Weis filed this request with the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States of America.
Tracking #

2019-001948

Multi Request Origin of FIPS 186-4 Elliptic Curves over Prime Field SEED Parameters
Status
Rejected

Communications

From: Steve Weis

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any documents related to the choice of elliptic curves over prime fields for ECC key agreement that first appeared in FIPS 186-4 Appendix D, sections D.1.2.1-D.1.2.5 (https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.186-4.pdf). For example, any information to the choice of D.1.2.3: P-256: SEED = c49d3608 86e70493 6a6678e1 139d26b7 819f7e90.

This document has been superseded by NIST 800-56A (https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-56Ar3.pdf).

Please return any email, memorandum, presentations, reports, articles, research papers, justifying the choice of initialization parameters for the following standards:
P-224 (also known as secp224r1), P-256 (secp256r1), P-384 (secp384r1), P-521 (secp521r1)

Dr. Jerry (or Gerald) Solinas from the NSA may have been involved in the parameter selection.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Steve Weis

From: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Mr. Weis,

Please see the attached correspondence in reference to your recent FOIA request.

Thank you,
Maureen O'Reilly
NIST FOIA Office

From: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Mr. Weis,

Please see the attached correspondence in reference to your recent FOIA request.

Thank you,
Maureen O'Reilly
NIST FOIA Office

From: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Mr. Weis,

Please see the attached correspondence in reference to your recent FOIA request.

Thank you,
Maureen O'Reilly
NIST FOIA Office

From: Steve Weis

To whom it may concern,
Your letter dated on September 23rd, 2019 states that "NIST has no documents that are responsive" to my request for information on source material for NIST Publication FIPS PUB 186-4, section D.1.2 "NIST Recommendations for Curves over Prime Fields". This material was published in 2013.

To clarify your response, you are saying that NIST has no documentation of how NIST's own 2013 recommendations for elliptic curves over prime fields were chosen? How were these curve parameters chosen and included in the specification?

Thank you for any assistance.

From: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Mr. Weis,

This is to let you know that I have been assigned to review your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal (DOC-OS-2020-000302) concerning your request to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (Request DOC-NIST-2019-001943).
We will issue a decision as soon as possible.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Thank you.
Andrea

Andrea Torczon
Senior Attorney
Information Law Division
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Department of Commerce
202-482-8028

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message is intended only for the named recipients. It contains information that may be confidential, privileged, attorney work product, or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message in error, are not a named recipient, or are not the employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to a named recipient, be advised that any review, disclosure, use, dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of this message or its contents is strictly prohibited. Please notify us immediately that you have received this message in error, and delete the message.

From: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Mr. Weis,
I am reviewing this matter and will provide an update next week.
Thank you.
Andrea

Andrea Torczon
Senior Attorney
Information Law Division
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Department of Commerce
202-482-8028

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message is intended only for the named recipients. It contains information that may be confidential, privileged, attorney work product, or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message in error, are not a named recipient, or are not the employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to a named recipient, be advised that any review, disclosure, use, dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of this message or its contents is strictly prohibited. Please notify us immediately that you have received this message in error, and delete the message.

From: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Your Appeal # DOC-OS-2020-000302 for Request # DOC-NIST-2019-001948 is in review. We will issue a decision as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Andrea

Andrea Torczon
Senior Attorney
Information Law Division
Office of the General Counsel
U.S. Department of Commerce
202-482-8028

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message is intended only for the named recipients. It contains information that may be confidential, privileged, attorney work product, or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this message in error, are not a named recipient, or are not the employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to a named recipient, be advised that any review, disclosure, use, dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of this message or its contents is strictly prohibited. Please notify us immediately that you have received this message in error, and delete the message.

From: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Please see the attached letter.
Thank you.

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