1. Introduction

1. Introduction

A key derivation function (KDF) is a basic and essential component of cryptographic systems. Its goal is to take some source of initial keying material and derive from it one or more cryptographically strong secret keys.

This document specifies a simple HMAC-based [HMAC] KDF, named HKDF, which can be used as a building block in various protocols and applications, and is already used in several IETF protocols, including [IKEv2], [PANA], and [EAP-AKA]. The purpose is to document this KDF in a general way to facilitate adoption in future protocols and applications, and to discourage the proliferation of multiple KDF mechanisms. It is not intended as a call to change existing protocols and does not change or update existing specifications using this KDF.

HKDF follows the "extract-then-expand" paradigm, where the KDF logically consists of two modules. The first stage takes the input keying material and "extracts" from it a fixed-length pseudorandom key K. The second stage "expands" the key K into several additional pseudorandom keys (the output of the KDF).

In many applications, the input keying material is not necessarily distributed uniformly, and the attacker may have some partial knowledge about it (for example, a Diffie-Hellman value computed by a key exchange protocol) or even partial control of it (as in some entropy-gathering applications). Thus, the goal of the "extract" stage is to "concentrate" the possibly dispersed entropy of the input keying material into a short, but cryptographically strong, pseudorandom key. In some applications, the input may already be a good pseudorandom key; in these cases, the "extract" stage is not necessary, and the "expand" part can be used alone.

The second stage "expands" the pseudorandom key to the desired length; the number and lengths of the output keys depend on the specific cryptographic algorithms for which the keys are needed.

Note that some existing KDF specifications, such as NIST Special Publication 800-56A [800-56A], NIST Special Publication 800-108 [800-108] and IEEE Standard 1363a-2004 [1363a], either only consider the second stage (expanding a pseudorandom key), or do not explicitly differentiate between the "extract" and "expand" stages, often resulting in design shortcomings. The goal of this specification is to accommodate a wide range of KDF requirements while minimizing the assumptions about the underlying hash function. The "extract-then-expand" paradigm supports well this goal (see [HKDF-paper] for more information about the design rationale).