Inhaltsverzeichnis

3.3 NIST PQC Standards

The official US standards for quantum-safe cryptography.

Background

NIST1) has published the first three Post-Quantum Standards2) in August 2024 after 8 years of research.

The Three Standards

FIPS 203 - ML-KEM

Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism3)

FIPS 204 - ML-DSA

Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm6)

FIPS 205 - SLH-DSA

Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Algorithm8)

Recommendation

NIST recommends immediate adoption of these standards. They can and should be implemented now.

Sources

1)
National Institute of Standards and Technology: https://www.nist.gov/
2)
NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Project: https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/post-quantum-cryptography
3)
NIST FIPS 203: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.203.pdf
4)
CRYSTALS-Kyber Specification: https://pq-crystals.org/kyber/
5)
Transport Layer Security
6)
NIST FIPS 204: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.204.pdf
7)
CRYSTALS-Dilithium Specification: https://pq-crystals.org/dilithium/
8)
NIST FIPS 205: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.205.pdf
9)
SPHINCS+ Specification: https://sphincs.org/