BN_security_bits - returns bits of security based on given numbers
Contents
Copyright
Copyright 2017-2019 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance
with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
3.5.0 2025-06-04 BN_SECURITY_BITS(3SSL)
Description
BN_security_bits() returns the number of bits of security provided by a specific algorithm and a
particular key size. The bits of security is defined in NIST SP800-57. Currently, BN_security_bits()
support two types of asymmetric algorithms: the FFC (Finite Field Cryptography) and IFC (Integer
Factorization Cryptography). For FFC, e.g., DSA and DH, both parameters L and N are used to decide the
bits of security, where L is the size of the public key and N is the size of the private key. For IFC,
e.g., RSA, only L is used and it's commonly considered to be the key size (modulus).
History
The BN_security_bits() function was added in OpenSSL 1.1.0.
Name
BN_security_bits - returns bits of security based on given numbers
Notes
ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) is not covered by the BN_security_bits() function. The symmetric
algorithms are not covered neither.
Return Values
Number of security bits.
See Also
DH_security_bits(3), DSA_security_bits(3), RSA_security_bits(3)
Synopsis
#include <openssl/bn.h>
int BN_security_bits(int L, int N);
