5. Security Considerations

5. Security Considerations

In spite of the simplicity of HKDF, there are many security considerations that have been taken into account in the design and analysis of this construction. An exposition of all of these aspects is beyond the scope of this document. Please refer to [HKDF-paper] for detailed information, including rationale for the design and for the guidelines presented in Section 3.

A major effort has been made in the above paper [HKDF-paper] to provide a cryptographic analysis of HKDF as a multi-purpose KDF that exercises much care in the way it utilizes cryptographic hash functions. This is particularly important due to the limited confidence we have in the strength of current hash functions. This analysis, however, does not imply the absolute security of any scheme, and it depends heavily on the strength of the underlying hash function and on modeling choices. Yet, it serves as a strong indication of the correct structure of the HKDF design and its advantages over other common KDF schemes.