It should be noted that if indeed there has not remained much time until a usable quantum computer will become available, the priority is the deployment of FIPS 203 (ML-KEM) for the establishment of the secret session keys that are used in protocols like TLS or SSH.
ML-KEM is intended to replace the traditional and the elliptic-curve variant of the Diffie-Hellman algorithm for creating a shared secret value.
When FIPS 203, i.e. ML-KEM is not used, adversaries may record data transferred over the Internet and they might become able to decrypt the data after some years.
On the other hand, there is much less urgency to replace the certificates and the digital signature methods that are used today, because in most cases it would not matter if someone would become able to forge them in the future, because they cannot go in the past to use that for authentication.
The only exception is when there would exist some digital documents that would completely replace some traditional paper documents that have legal significance, like some documents proving ownership of something, which would be digitally signed, so forging them in the future could be useful for somebody, in which case a future-proof signing method would make sense for them.
tux3 48 minutes ago [-]
This is a good take, there's really not much to argue about.
>[...] the availability of HPKE hybrid recipients, which blocked on the CFRG, which took almost two years to select a stable label string for X-Wing (January 2024) with ML-KEM (August 2024), despite making precisely no changes to the designs. The IETF should have an internal post-mortem on this, but I doubt we’ll see one
My kingdom for a standards body that discusses and resolves process issues.
OhMeadhbh 5 minutes ago [-]
I missed you at the most recent CRFG meeting.
Sparkyte 12 minutes ago [-]
There is always a price to encryption. The cost goes up the more you have to cater to different and older encryptions while supporting the latest.
OhMeadhbh 21 minutes ago [-]
In rebuttal, Peter Gutmann seems to think the progress towards quantum computing devices which can break commonly used public key crypto systems is not moving especially quickly: https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1237
schmichael 15 minutes ago [-]
That's not a rebuttal. The post references the paper and a rebuttal to it from an expert in the field.
OhMeadhbh 10 minutes ago [-]
Damn. It's like I insulted Vault.
pdhborges 1 hours ago [-]
What do you recomend as reading material for someone that was in college a while ago (before AE modes got popular) to get up to speed with the new PQ developments?
FiloSottile 50 minutes ago [-]
If you want something book-shaped, the 2nd edition of Serious Cryptography is updated to when the NIST standards were near-final drafts, and has a nice chapter on post-quantum cryptography.
If you want something that includes details on how they were deployed, I'm afraid that's all very recent and I don't have good references.
vonneumannstan 51 minutes ago [-]
This seems like something uniquely suited to the startup ecosystem. I.e. offering PQ Encryption Migration as a Service. PQ algorithms exist and now theres a large lift required to get them into the tech with substantial possible value.
hlieberman 31 minutes ago [-]
… really? This is simultaneously so far down in the plumbing and extremely resistant to measuring the impact of, I can’t imagine anyone building a company off of this that’s not already deep in the weeds (lookin’ at you, WolfSSL).
The idea that a startup would be competitive in the VC “the only thing that matters are the feels” environment seems crazy to me.
OhMeadhbh 16 minutes ago [-]
Yeah... I spent the 90s working for RSADSI and Certicom implementing algorithms. Crypto is a vitamin, not an aspirin. Hardly anyone is capable of properly assessing risk in general, much less the technical world of information risk management. Telling someone they should pay you money to reduce the impact of something that may or may not happen in the future is not a sales win.
OsrsNeedsf2P 20 minutes ago [-]
Why do we "need to ship"? 1,000 qubit quantum computers are still decades away at this point
munrocket 11 minutes ago [-]
Yes, this is why I invested in QRL crypto. With lates updates and no T1 exchange it looks like a good opportunity to grow.
Rendered at 17:50:40 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
ML-KEM is intended to replace the traditional and the elliptic-curve variant of the Diffie-Hellman algorithm for creating a shared secret value.
When FIPS 203, i.e. ML-KEM is not used, adversaries may record data transferred over the Internet and they might become able to decrypt the data after some years.
On the other hand, there is much less urgency to replace the certificates and the digital signature methods that are used today, because in most cases it would not matter if someone would become able to forge them in the future, because they cannot go in the past to use that for authentication.
The only exception is when there would exist some digital documents that would completely replace some traditional paper documents that have legal significance, like some documents proving ownership of something, which would be digitally signed, so forging them in the future could be useful for somebody, in which case a future-proof signing method would make sense for them.
>[...] the availability of HPKE hybrid recipients, which blocked on the CFRG, which took almost two years to select a stable label string for X-Wing (January 2024) with ML-KEM (August 2024), despite making precisely no changes to the designs. The IETF should have an internal post-mortem on this, but I doubt we’ll see one
My kingdom for a standards body that discusses and resolves process issues.
If you want something that includes details on how they were deployed, I'm afraid that's all very recent and I don't have good references.
The idea that a startup would be competitive in the VC “the only thing that matters are the feels” environment seems crazy to me.