PKCS #5: Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2) Test Vectors
Sample inputs and expected outputs for the PBKDF2 password hashing function.
Josefsson, S., "PKCS #5: Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2) Test Vectors", RFC 6070, DOI 10.17487/RFC6070, January 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6070>.
@misc{rfc6070,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 6070,
howpublished = {RFC 6070},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC6070},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6070},
author = {S. Josefsson},
title = {{PKCS #5: Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2) Test Vectors}},
pagetotal = 5,
year = 2011,
month = jan,
} RFC text
Contents
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Josefsson
Request for Comments: 6070 SJD AB
Category: Informational January 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721
PKCS #5: Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2)
Test Vectors
Abstract
This document contains test vectors for the Public-Key Cryptography
Standards (PKCS) #5 Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2)
with the Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) Secure Hash
Algorithm (SHA-1) pseudorandom function.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6070.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. PBKDF2 HMAC-SHA1 Test Vectors ...................................2
3. Acknowledgements ................................................4
4. Copying Conditions ..............................................4
5. Security Considerations .........................................4
6. References ......................................................4
6.1. Normative References .......................................4
6.2. Informative References .....................................5
1. Introduction
The Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) #5 [RFC2898] Password-
Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2) is used by several protocols
to derive encryption keys from a password.
For example, Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism
(SCRAM) [RFC5802] uses PBKDF2 with Hash-based Message Authentication
Code (HMAC) [RFC2104] and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1)
[FIPS.180-1.1995].
Test vectors for the algorithm were not included in the original
specification, but are often useful for implementers. This document
addresses the shortcoming.
2. PBKDF2 HMAC-SHA1 Test Vectors
The input strings below are encoded using ASCII [ANSI.X3-4.1986].
The sequence "\0" (without quotation marks) means a literal ASCII NUL
value (1 octet). "DK" refers to the Derived Key.
Input:
P = "password" (8 octets)
S = "salt" (4 octets)
c = 1
dkLen = 20
Output:
DK = 0c 60 c8 0f 96 1f 0e 71
f3 a9 b5 24 af 60 12 06
2f e0 37 a6 (20 octets)
Input:
P = "password" (8 octets)
S = "salt" (4 octets)
c = 2
dkLen = 20
Output:
DK = ea 6c 01 4d c7 2d 6f 8c
cd 1e d9 2a ce 1d 41 f0
d8 de 89 57 (20 octets)
Input:
P = "password" (8 octets)
S = "salt" (4 octets)
c = 4096
dkLen = 20
Output:
DK = 4b 00 79 01 b7 65 48 9a
be ad 49 d9 26 f7 21 d0
65 a4 29 c1 (20 octets)
Input:
P = "password" (8 octets)
S = "salt" (4 octets)
c = 16777216
dkLen = 20
Output:
DK = ee fe 3d 61 cd 4d a4 e4
e9 94 5b 3d 6b a2 15 8c
26 34 e9 84 (20 octets)
Input:
P = "passwordPASSWORDpassword" (24 octets)
S = "saltSALTsaltSALTsaltSALTsaltSALTsalt" (36 octets)
c = 4096
dkLen = 25
Output:
DK = 3d 2e ec 4f e4 1c 84 9b
80 c8 d8 36 62 c0 e4 4a
8b 29 1a 96 4c f2 f0 70
38 (25 octets)
Input:
P = "pass\0word" (9 octets)
S = "sa\0lt" (5 octets)
c = 4096
dkLen = 16
Output:
DK = 56 fa 6a a7 55 48 09 9d
cc 37 d7 f0 34 25 e0 c3 (16 octets)
3. Acknowledgements
Barry Brachman and Love Hornquist Astrand confirmed the test vectors
(using independent implementations) and pointed out a mistake in the
salt octet length count.
4. Copying Conditions
This document should be considered a Code Component and is thus
available under the BSD license.
5. Security Considerations
The security considerations in [RFC2898] apply. This document does
not introduce any new security considerations.
6. References
6.1. Normative References
[ANSI.X3-4.1986]
American National Standards Institute, "Coded Character
Set - 7-bit American Standard Code for Information
Interchange", ANSI X3.4, 1986.
[RFC2104] Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti, "HMAC: Keyed-
Hashing for Message Authentication", RFC 2104,
February 1997.
[RFC2898] Kaliski, B., "PKCS #5: Password-Based Cryptography
Specification Version 2.0", RFC 2898, September 2000.
[FIPS.180-1.1995]
National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Secure
Hash Standard", FIPS PUB 180-1, April 1995,
<http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip180-1.htm>.
6.2. Informative References
[RFC5802] Newman, C., Menon-Sen, A., Melnikov, A., and N. Williams,
"Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism
(SCRAM) SASL and GSS-API Mechanisms", RFC 5802,
July 2010.
Author's Address
Simon Josefsson
SJD AB
Hagagatan 24
Stockholm 113 47
SE
EMail: simon@josefsson.org
URI: http://josefsson.org/
AI ELI5
On this page
§1What Test Vectors Do
PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2) is a standard algorithm for converting a password into a cryptographic key. PKCS #5 defined it in RFC 2898, but did not include test cases. Test vectors are critical for implementations: they show what output a correct implementation should produce for known inputs.
This RFC provides six test cases using PBKDF2 with HMAC-SHA-1. The test cases range from simple (1 iteration) to realistic (4096 or 16,777,216 iterations), and include edge cases like null bytes in the password or salt.
PBKDF2 scrambles a password in a specific way. These test cases show "scramble 'password' with these settings" and "you should get this scrambled result."
§2The Test Vectors
All test vectors use ASCII-encoded passwords and salts. The first test uses password "password", salt "salt", 1 iteration, and expects a 20-byte key. The second test uses the same inputs but 2 iterations. The third uses 4096 iterations, and the fourth uses 16,777,216 iterations, showing how iteration count affects performance. The fifth test uses longer strings and a larger output (25 bytes). The sixth test includes null bytes (backslash-zero) in the password and salt, testing null-byte handling.
Each test vector specifies the exact output in hexadecimal so implementations can compare byte-for-byte.
Test 1: simple case. Test 2: same but run more rounds. Test 3: lots of rounds. Test 4: even more rounds. Test 5: longer password. Test 6: with weird null bytes inside.
§3Implementation Verification
An implementer writes code to compute PBKDF2, then runs each test vector through it and compares the output to the expected result. If they match, the implementation is likely correct. PBKDF2 is used in SCRAM (SASL authentication) and other authentication protocols, so getting it right is important.
The test vectors were independently verified by multiple implementers before publication to ensure correctness.
Run your code on these inputs. If your answers match the list, your code works.