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The NIST Computer Security Resource Center called for nominations for a process to standardise lightweight symmetric primitives in August 2018.

In the update talk in the 2019 Lightweight Cryptography Workshop, it was hoped that winners would be announced in 2021.

At the 2020 workshop, it was hoped that finalists would be chosen by the end of 2020 with the final round roughly one year to complete.

Finalists were announced in March 2021.

At the May 2022 workshop it was hoped that winners would be announced in 2022 and standardisation would begin, with standardisation to be completed in 2023.

The project homepage also notes the evaluation process as being expected to finish in late 2022.

As we approach the end of 2022, is there any further news on the progress of the process?

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  • $\begingroup$ NIST must be overwhelmed by the PQC and publication review project right now. If the donkeys and the elephants gets into another fight over budget, they might even face another shutdown soon. $\endgroup$
    – DannyNiu
    Commented Dec 24, 2022 at 12:18
  • $\begingroup$ Slightly late, it seems that the bill has passed. $\endgroup$
    – Maarten Bodewes ♦
    Commented Dec 24, 2022 at 12:56
  • $\begingroup$ A shoutout to the authors of "A Review of the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Finalists and Their Fault Analyses" to give a nice overview of the finalists and the performed analysis. $\endgroup$
    – Maarten Bodewes ♦
    Commented Dec 24, 2022 at 13:20
  • $\begingroup$ There isn't a lot of activity on the mail forum (groups.google.com/a/list.nist.gov/g/lwc-forum), maybe they plan on making the announcement next week. $\endgroup$
    – Swashbuckler
    Commented Dec 24, 2022 at 14:55

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My contact in NIST has told me that they were expecting to announce first week of January, but now it looks more like it will happen late in the same month.

This is unofficial but I expect it to be fully accurate.

Edit: NIST has now announced the Ascon family as the lightweight cryptography standard. See the announcement here

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    $\begingroup$ This seems to be consistent with a recent forum posting: groups.google.com/a/list.nist.gov/g/lwc-forum/c/ZjqbdDyO0Do $\endgroup$
    – Daniel S
    Commented Dec 30, 2022 at 23:00
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    $\begingroup$ NIST has now announced the Ascon family as the lightweight cryptography to be standardised. See their announcement. Would you like to add this to your answer? $\endgroup$
    – Daniel S
    Commented Feb 7, 2023 at 22:26
  • $\begingroup$ Would your contact be able to say which (if any) other external agencies were instrumental in the final selection process? $\endgroup$
    – Paul Uszak
    Commented Feb 8, 2023 at 12:31
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    $\begingroup$ This is an absolute trashy comment, Paul. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Apon
    Commented Feb 9, 2023 at 11:00

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