The Message Authenticator Algorithm (MAA) was one of the first cryptographic functions for computing a Message Authentication Code. It was designed in 1983 by Donald Davies and David Clayden at the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom) in response to a request of the UK Bankers Automated Clearing Services. The original specification[1] of the MAA was given in natural language, complemented by two implementations in C and BASIC programming languages.
Standardization
The MAA was one of the first Message Authentication Code algorithms to gain widespread acceptance. It was adopted, between 1987 and 2001, in international standards ISO 8730 and ISO 8731-2 to ensure the authenticity and integrity of banking transactions.
Later, cryptanalysis of MAA revealed various weaknesses, including feasible brute-force attacks, existence of collision clusters, and key-recovery techniques. For this reason, MAA was withdrawn from ISO standards in 2002.
Formal specifications of the MAA
The MAA has been used as a case study for formal methods.
Bibliography
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Davies, Donald W. (1985). "A Message Authenticator Algorithm Suitable for a Mainframe Computer". Advances in Cryptology – Proceedings of the Workshop on the Theory and Application of Cryptographic Techniques (CRYPTO’84), Santa Barbara, CA, USA. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 196. Springer. pp. 393–400. doi:10.1007/3-540-39568-7_30.
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