Bringing post-quantum cryptography to geographically fenced key managementCloudflare's post-quantum GeoKey Manager, in closed beta for the Data Localization Suite, wraps customer private keys so only edge servers in an allowed region can unwrap them. It uses regional 256-bit root keys, derived application-specific HPKE key pairs (RFC 9180) with hybrid ML-KEM-768 and X25519, TPM-backed server authorization, kernel keyring storage, fail-closed checks, and soft and hard rotation. General availability is planned for Q1 2027.
blog.cloudflare.comarticleAdded 29 Oct 2026, published 23 Oct 2026🛡️ Security
Verifiable Post-Quantum TLS Handshake: Recognizing Implementation Errors of Cryptographic Verification StepsPQCD-TLS is a post-quantum TLS handshake that binds confirmation codes into chained key derivation, so a faulty signature or KEM verification step causes a key mismatch and handshake failure. The authors build confirmation-code frameworks for ML-DSA and Falcon signatures and for ML-KEM, HQC and DAWN, with unpredictability proofs. Across 48 configurations, handshake latency overhead stays below 1%.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 24 Oct 2026, published 21 Oct 2026🛡️ Security- Further Elaborations on the Provable Dual Attack
Further Elaborations on the Provable Dual Attack is an October 2026 ePrint paper by Kaveh Bashiri presenting a provable dual attack on LWE that recovers a subvector of the secret, with an explicit success-probability bound and no heuristic assumptions. It unifies the analyses of Pouly and Shen (EUROCRYPT 2024) and Bashiri and Wiemers (2025). Applied to ML-KEM it improves the first provable dual attack by 22 to 100 bits; it is also applied to ML-DSA and tested on small instances. The author states ML-KEM and ML-DSA are not threatened.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 21 Oct 2026, published 20 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Energy Consumption of Post-Quantum Cryptography on Constrained and General-Purpose Architectures
Benchmark of the three NIST post-quantum standards, FIPS 203 (ML-KEM), FIPS 204 (ML-DSA) and FIPS 205 (SLH-DSA), measuring speed and energy for key generation, signing and verification. Tests ran on Raspberry Pi 1, Zero and 4 and on laptop hardware, using OpenSSL 3.5 and a FNIRSI FNB58 USB power meter. ML-KEM and ML-DSA match classical elliptic-curve cryptography, while SLH-DSA signing on 32-bit devices cost up to 243% more energy than on 64-bit.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 20 Oct 2026, published 19 Oct 2026🛡️ Security 
Post-Quantum Stateless Steganography & MTU Bounds: Bridging P2P Censorship Resistance to Quantum NetworksForum announcement of a Zenodo preprint on post-quantum migration for censorship-resistant P2P steganographic tunnels. It argues that ML-KEM's prime modulus (q=3329) makes naive bit-packed ciphertexts statistically distinguishable from uniform noise, which gives a cheap passive DPI distinguisher. It also argues that composite PQ 0-RTT envelopes over 4.4 KB force fragmentation, which requires stateful reassembly before AEAD verification and reopens memory-exhaustion DoS in eBPF/XDP filters. Proposed fixes are algebraic uniformization (LWR lattices or inverse rejection sampling), sub-MTU hybrid or pure-PQ envelopes (Falcon-512, signcryption), and Fujisaki–Okamoto implicit rejection for constant-time silent drops. Aimed at Ethereum validator, libp2p and RPC transports facing harvest-now-decrypt-later threats.
ethereum-magicians.orgpaperPublished and added 17 Oct 2026🛡️ Security
Fast post-quantum signature aggregation with lattice SNARKsa16z crypto announces Aerie, a lattice-SNARK system that aggregates Falcon-512/1024 signatures into one ~66 KiB proof. On an M4 Max laptop it handles 32,768 signatures in 0.65 s (~50k/s), verifies in 54 ms, and costs ~42 bytes per signature. It benchmarks against Orthus and Ethereum's leanVM hash-based XMSS aggregation, and argues that recursion-free lattice aggregation is simpler than hash-only designs. It also covers Falcon's hardware-wallet and side-channel constraints and why private payments need lattice encryption such as ML-KEM.
a16zcrypto.comarticlePublished and added 16 Oct 2026🛡️ Security- Post-Quantum Certificate-Based PSK Provisioning for WireGuard via Mutual TLS, DTLS, and QUIC: Design and Performance Study
The paper proposes a post-quantum architecture for WireGuard that leaves the core protocol unchanged. A mutually authenticated TLS 1.3 control channel runs over TCP, UDP (DTLS) or QUIC and uses ML-KEM key establishment, with X.509 certificates from a PKI signed with ML-DSA. A shared secret derived from the session's exported keying material is injected into WireGuard's native PSK interface. A Tamarin model of the TLS–WireGuard composition layer checks secrecy, binding and provisioning-order properties and identifies the conditions needed for secure deployment. The authors benchmark handshake latency and CPU time for classical, pure-PQ and hybrid key establishment across the three transports, and compare against the Rosenpass PQ WireGuard baseline.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 15 Oct 2026, published 14 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Faster generic CCA secure KEM transformation using encrypt-then-MAC
The paper proposes a generic encrypt-then-MAC transformation for building CCA-secure KEMs. The PKE ciphertext is authenticated by a MAC keyed from the PKE plaintext, so decapsulation no longer needs the Fujisaki-Okamoto re-encryption step. It proves IND-CCA security in the random oracle model from OW-PCA, and IND-qCCA security from a new OW-qPCA notion. It presents ML-KEM-EtM and McElieceEtM (Classic McEliece), and benchmarks ML-KEM-EtM with Poly1305, GMAC, CMAC and KMAC256. The result is a substantially lower decapsulation cycle count for a small cost in encapsulation cycles and ciphertext size.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 14 Oct 2026, published 11 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Hybrid post-quantum stealth addresses (ERC-5564 schemeId 3)
A draft ERC proposing schemeId 3 for ERC-5564 stealth addresses, combining an ML-KEM-768 encapsulation with a secp256k1 ECDH secret so that future quantum computers cannot retroactively deanonymize recipients from the public announcement log, while spending stays classical secp256k1 (and thus still quantum-vulnerable once spent). The post, with a linked reference implementation, test vectors and gas harness, details the key/meta-address format, the payment-secret combiner (hashing both shared secrets and ciphertexts for IND-CCA), the view-tag derivation ordering to avoid quantum tag-narrowing, measured gas cost (111,330 gas per payment on Prague), and open questions around ANO-CCA proofs for standardized ML-KEM, NIST SP 800-56C combiner approval, and downgrade-attack handling when a recipient registers under both schemeId 1 and 3.
ethereum-magicians.orgthreadPublished and added 9 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - ERC-8441: Hybrid post-quantum stealth address scheme
A draft Ethereum ERC (ERC-8441) proposes schemeId 3 for ERC-5564 stealth addresses, combining an ML-KEM-768 encapsulation with a secp256k1 ECDH secret so that quantum adversaries who later break discrete log still cannot deanonymize who was paid in past public announcement logs, protecting against harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks. Spending remains classical secp256k1 and unprotected once quantum computers exist; the authors flag open issues including a documented downgrade attack (recipients registered under both scheme 1 and 3 can still be paid without PQ protection), the lack of a formal ANO-CCA proof for standardized ML-KEM, and a non-NIST-approved secret combiner. It reuses the existing ERC-5564 announcer and ERC-6538 registry with no contract changes, costing 111,330 gas per payment.
ethereum-magicians.orgthreadPublished and added 9 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Provable Subexponential Algorithms for Module-SIS and Module-LWE
ePrint preprint extending the Ducas–Engelberts–Loyer provable subexponential Gaussian sampler (built on Wagner's generalized birthday algorithm) to module matrices over power-of-two cyclotomic rings. It gives provable 2^{O(n/lnln n)}-time algorithms for Module-SIS and for decision and search Module-LWE using only the k+ℓ ring samples provided, plus sample-preserving scalar search-LWE and narrow Module-LWE variants. Separate heuristic estimates suggest these Wagner-style attacks do not reach the NIST security targets of ML-KEM and ML-DSA.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 12 Oct 2026, published 8 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Provable Subexponential Algorithms for NIST Third-Round Lattice Families
An IACR ePrint paper by Yiming Gao, Xuyuan Han, and Honggang Hu presenting provable classical subexponential algorithms (running in roughly 2^((1/2+o(1))n/ln ln n) time/space) for recovering short secrets in growing parameter families tied to all seven NIST third-round lattice candidates: Kyber/ML-KEM, FrodoKEM, SABER, NTRU LPRime, Dilithium/ML-DSA, Falcon, and cyclic NTRU-HPS/HRSS. The approach extends the Wagner-style Gaussian sampling framework of Ducas, Engelberts, and Loyer (CRYPTO 2025) and a low-error decision-LWE algorithm, using an exact squared-Euclidean-norm gap to binary-search each secret coordinate, and an "affine slice search" over the public lattice for NTRU/Falcon-type quotient relations. The authors explicitly note the subexponential complexity applies to growing/weakened parameter regimes and does not reduce the concrete security of the currently specified NIST parameter sets.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 6 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - A Security-Aware PQC Benchmarking Framework on Dual-Core Xtensa Silicon
This IACR ePrint paper proposes a security-aware benchmarking framework for deploying memory-heavy PQC (ML-KEM, ML-DSA) on the dual-core ESP32-S3 (Xtensa LX7) running FreeRTOS, aimed at smart-grid substation devices bound by the IEC 61850 GOOSE tripping window (≤3ms). It details an asymmetric task-isolation design pinning crypto to Core 1, a heap-auditing methodology for FreeRTOS's heap_4.c allocator tracking key-state allocations across DRAM, and an analytical latency model of CPU stall overhead caused when side-channel masking forces secret polynomial shares to spill to external Octal-SPI PSRAM during non-sequential Cooley-Tukey NTT strides. The work gives embedded engineers a methodology to evaluate PQC side-channel/latency trade-offs before migrating real-time grid infrastructure.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 6 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - On the Instantiability of the Fujisaki–Okamoto Transform for Trapdoor Functions
An IACR ePrint paper showing that the message-only implicit-rejection KEM variant of the Fujisaki-Okamoto (FO) transform used by ML-KEM is uninstantiable in general (under LWE plus subexponentially secure iO and puncturable PRFs), meaning no concrete hash function can replace the random oracle while preserving IND-CCA2 security for every injective trapdoor function. The authors instead give sufficient conditions, via a new "distributional injective extractability" property, to achieve standard-model IND-CCA2 security for the hybrid-encryption (not KEM) formulation of FO, with a standard-model instantiation left open. This directly bears on the theoretical foundations underlying ML-KEM's security proof.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 5 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - X-Wing on Cortex-M85: Architecture-Aware Integration and End-to-End Evaluation
An IACR ePrint paper presenting an architecture-aware implementation of the X-Wing hybrid KEM (ML-KEM-768 plus X25519) for the ARM Cortex-M85, using its M-profile Vector Extension NTT and a shared-inversion trick during encapsulation to cut cycle counts by 12 to 19 percent versus a baseline, at a cost of about 35KB extra flash. The authors found that their optimized variant introduced secret-sign-dependent operand-address selection, a side-channel weakness, and produced a corrected version whose fix is only partial since some key-varying timing signals persist and remain unexplained, so no constant-time guarantee is claimed.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 5 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - HyBind: Structural Analysis of PQ/T Hybrid Cryptographic Usage
HyBind is an intraprocedural Python static-analysis framework that traces cryptographic component secrets through code to determine whether post-quantum/traditional (PQ/T) hybrid key-derivation and signature-verification logic actually requires both algorithms to succeed, rather than silently accepting a result from only one. It uses registered API contracts and function-return/execution-effect checks to distinguish real AND-logic hybrids from presence-based heuristics that wrongly treat joint and single-algorithm contributions as equivalent. The authors validate it on 50 controlled fixtures and 33 programs (15 using native ML-KEM/X25519 and ML-DSA/Ed25519 APIs), showing relaxed checks can misclassify traditional-only results as hybrid.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 5 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Randomness-Anchored Runtime Discovery of Cryptographic Operations on Linux Using eBPF
This IACR ePrint paper presents a Linux runtime cryptographic discovery system built on eBPF user-space probes that detects both classical and post-quantum (ML-KEM) cryptographic operations as they execute, complementing static binary/SBOM analysis with dynamic observation. It uses "randomness anchoring" — correlating observed key-generation/encapsulation randomness with subsequent crypto API calls in the same process — to raise detection confidence without adding false positives, reporting perfect precision/recall on classical and ML-KEM workloads, median detection latency of 28 μs, and 14–18% overhead on key-generation-bound workloads. A nine-application case study (drawn from/paired with QED datasets) compares static vs. runtime views and shows how eBPF probe coverage limits what can be observed, relevant to building a runtime cryptographic bill of materials for PQC migration compliance.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 5 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Post-Quantum Command Authentication for Unmanned Systems: A KpqC Feasibility Study under Real-Time and Bandwidth Constraints
This paper evaluates whether Korean post-quantum crypto candidates (HAETAE, AIMer, SMAUG-T, NTRU+) and NIST PQC standards (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA) can replace classical ECDSA/ECDH in the authentication and key-establishment path of ROS2/DDS-Security for UAV/UGV command channels. The authors build a feasibility envelope mapping each algorithm's key/signature size and handshake latency against real command-link constraints (message rate, MTU, latency deadline, bandwidth), then validate it with authentication-handshake measurements over emulated constrained links on a two-node testbed, producing a classical→NIST→KpqC comparison and per-channel-budget application guidance.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 5 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Deploying Native-Rust KpqC: Pluggable Post-Quantum KEMs and Signatures across TLS, Space Links, and the OQS Ecosystem
This IACR ePrint paper presents a native-Rust, memory-safe implementation of the Korean KpqC competition's standardized post-quantum schemes — KEMs NTRU+ and SMAUG-T, and signatures HAETAE and AIMer — replacing the reference memory-unsafe C code. The authors expose all seven KEM parameter sets and four signature modes through a single pluggable provider demonstrated across three real deployment front-ends: a rustls TLS 1.3 key-exchange group, an OQS/liboqs-compatible C ABI, and an analytical CCSDS/SDLS satellite constrained-link model, showing SMAUG-T variants are smaller/faster than ML-KEM-768 on constrained space links and a memory-optimized NTRU+ build cuts peak stack by up to 25% at negligible latency cost.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 5 Oct 2026🛡️ Security - Measuring Parallel Execution of Classical–PQC Component Pairs in Hybrid TLS 1.3
An IACR ePrint paper benchmarks whether running the classical and post-quantum components of hybrid TLS 1.3 key exchange (ECDHE–ML-KEM) and Composite ML-DSA signatures in parallel on separate pthread worker threads reduces handshake latency versus sequential execution. Across three RFC 10024 ECDHE–ML-KEM groups with server and mutual authentication, parallelism sped up all six tested conditions on a standard ARM and x86 system (1.04×–1.28×), with the largest gains in signature stages where component times are balanced, but slowed every condition on a low-power x86 system (0.80×–0.92×) because thread wake/wait overhead outweighed savings. The authors conclude that component independence alone doesn't guarantee a speedup and that parallelization decisions must be validated per target environment.
eprint.iacr.orgpaperAdded 8 Oct 2026, published 5 Oct 2026🛡️ Security 
PQ anonymity for Stealth Address ProtocolA technical ethresear.ch post proposing post-quantum upgrades (schemeId 2-6) to Ethereum's Stealth Address Protocol (ERC-5564/ERC-6538), replacing ECDH with ML-KEM (FIPS 203) to preserve recipient unlinkability against a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer. It identifies a specific vulnerability: the naive 1-byte view-tag optimization leaks enough information for a quantum attacker holding the derived public key to recover the spending key discrete log and test candidate recipients, breaking anonymity even when ML-KEM is used; the authors propose domain-separated tag derivation, hybrid EC/PQ combiners, pairwise-KEM variants, and a "stealthier SAP" construction to fix it.
ethresear.chwriteupAdded 29 Sep 2026, published 28 Sep 2026🛡️ Security- PQ spending for Stealth Address Protocol
Third in a series on post-quantum upgrades to the Stealth Address Protocol (ERC-5564/ERC-6538), this ethresear.ch post proposes a new schemeId=6 that replaces ECDH with ML-KEM for quantum-safe payment discovery and replaces ECDSA with either a lattice-based signature (SPIRIT, an ML-DSA/Dilithium variant) or a novel construction called HSAP that uses ML-KEM key delivery plus a ZK proof over hash-preimages for spending authorization. It works through the exact key-generation/derivation math for both schemes, discusses on-chain verification costs (citing ETHDILITHIUM benchmarks and draft EIP-8051's ~4500-gas ML-DSA-44 precompile), and sketches how the extended ERC-5564 announcer/registry interface and smart-account spending path would look under quantum attack assumptions.
ethresear.charticleAdded 29 Sep 2026, published 28 Sep 2026🛡️ Security -1.png)
From Algebra to Noise: Why Post-Quantum Cryptography Looks DifferentOpenZeppelin Security's technical explainer on why post-quantum cryptography looks so different from classical crypto: Shor's algorithm exploits the abelian hidden-subgroup structure underlying RSA, Diffie-Hellman, ECDSA, EdDSA and pairing-based schemes, while Grover's algorithm only halves the effective security of hashes and symmetric keys (256-bit hashes stay at a comfortable 128-bit level). It then walks through NIST's finalized lattice/hash-based PQC standards — ML-KEM (Kyber) for key establishment, ML-DSA (Dilithium) for general signatures, SLH-DSA (SPHINCS+) as a conservative hash-based backup, plus future Falcon/FN-DSA and code-based HQC — mapping each to blockchain use cases and covering real deployment (Starknet's Falcon-512 Cairo account contracts), Ethereum account-abstraction/hybrid-signature migration paths, Bitcoin's UTXO/consensus constraints, Ethereum's LeanSig consensus-signature research, and a concrete institutional crypto-asset-inventory and PQC audit checklist.
openzeppelin.comarticleAdded 29 Sep 2026, published 14 Sep 2026🛡️ Security- age
age is a simple, modern file encryption tool, format, and Go library by Filippo Valsorda and @benjojo, offering small explicit keys, no config options, UNIX-style composability, and now built-in hybrid post-quantum encryption (ML-KEM + X25519) as of v1.3.0. It supports multiple recipients, passphrase encryption, SSH key (ed25519/rsa) recipients/identities, hardware tokens via age-plugin-yubikey, and an age-inspect command to view encrypted-file metadata without decrypting.
github.comrepoAdded 3 Sep 2026, published 31 Aug 2026🛡️ Security 
Shipping post-quantum cryptography to PythonTrail of Bits, funded by the Sovereign Tech Agency, implemented Rust bindings for NIST's ML-KEM (FIPS 203) key-establishment and ML-DSA (FIPS 204) digital-signature standards into pyca/cryptography, shipped in version 48 with AWS-LC backend support. The post makes them a pip install away for the Python ecosystem (pyca/cryptography sees 1.2B monthly PyPI downloads and underpins Certbot, Ansible, Airflow, and paramiko), while detailing the size/performance tradeoffs versus Ed25519/X25519 and noting SLH-DSA (FIPS 205) support and protocol-level integration are still in progress.
blog.trailofbits.comwriteupAdded 3 Sep 2026, published 30 Jun 2026🛡️ Security
State of Post Quantum Cryptography | Wiz BlogWiz's follow-up PQC research post quantifies real-world adoption of post-quantum key exchange (ML-KEM/X25519MLKEM768) and digital signatures (ML-DSA, SLH-DSA, pending FN-DSA) across AWS, Azure, and GCP APIs, OpenSSH/OpenSSL versions, and Go's crypto/tls. It finds stark gaps: Azure API servers show no PQC key-exchange support while GCP is universal and AWS sits at 13%, only 15% of TLS 1.3 connections observed use PQC-compliant key exchange, under 15% of OpenSSL instances support PQC, and less than 1% of companies use AWS KMS ML-DSA signing keys. The piece also covers the shift in PQC priority from key exchange (mitigating Harvest-Now-Decrypt-Later attacks) to digital signature migration, and the coming move to Merkle Tree Certificates to keep PQC certificate chains manageable.
wiz.ioarticleAdded 5 Sep 2026, published 28 May 2026🛡️ Security- FoxGuard
FoxGuard is a fast local/CI security scanner offering 200+ built-in rules across 12 languages, cross-file taint tracking for 14 languages, secrets scanning, OSV-backed dependency (SCA) scanning, and a post-quantum crypto (PQC) audit that flags quantum-vulnerable primitives (RSA, ECDSA/DSA, ECDH/DH) against CNSA 2.0 deadlines while also inventorying already-adopted PQC algorithms (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA, FN-DSA, HQC). It ships a Semgrep/OpenGrep-compatible YAML rule bridge covering ~98% of the public Semgrep registry, outputs to SARIF/CycloneDX 1.6 CBOM/Semgrep-JSON, and integrates via GitHub Action, pre-commit, VS Code, Claude Code plugin, and MCP server, plus an interactive TUI for reviewing findings and baselines. It's part of the "0sec" open cybersecurity harness project.
github.comrepoAdded 3 Sep 2026, published 16 May 2026🛡️ Security - PentHertz/LUKSbox
LUKSbox is an open-source (Apache 2.0), pre-1.0 encrypted vault format and CLI/GUI/TUI toolset written in Rust, designed so files can be stored on untrusted cloud/shared media while remaining opaque to the provider. It layers passphrase, FIDO2 hardware authenticators (hmac-secret), and TPM 2.0 sealed keys as unlock factors that all derive a Master Volume Key via HKDF-SHA256, and adds an optional ML-KEM-768/1024 post-quantum sidecar for hybrid encryption. The project publishes its on-disk format spec, threat model, and side-channel notes, and runs libFuzzer/AFL++ harnesses against every parser that touches attacker-controlled bytes (header, keyslot, metadata, hybrid sidecar, WinFsp paths).
github.comrepoPublished and added 8 May 2026🛡️ Security