KHAZAD was presented at the first NESSIE workshop in 2000, and, after some small changes, was selected as a finalist in the project.
KHAZAD has an eight-round substitution–permutation network structure similar to that of SHARK, a forerunner to Rijndael.
The design is classed as a "legacy-level" algorithm, with a 64-bit block size (in common with older ciphers such as DES and IDEA) and a 128-bit key.
KHAZAD makes heavy use of involutions as subcomponents; this minimises the difference between the algorithms for encryption and decryption.
Frédéric Muller has discovered an attack which can break five of KHAZAD's eight rounds.