Leveraging CPU instructions for GHASH and RSA

The modern Java platform includes an improved performance of cryptographic operations, specifically GHASH and RSA. This performance improvement has been achieved in Java by leveraging the newest SPARC and Intel x64 CPU instructions.

This enhancement did not require new or modified APIs as part of the Java platform.

Hashing

Galois HASH (GHASH) and RSA are cryptosystem hashing algorithms. Hashes are a fixed length string or number that is generated from a string of text. Algorithms, more specifically hashing algorithms, are devised so that the resultant hashes cannot be reverse engineered. We use hashing to store passwords that are generated with a salt.

Salts, in cryptology, are...