NIST Announces Post-Quantum Algorithm Standardization

Well, the internet has been abuzz with the announcement of the four post-quantum algorithms that will move on from the NIST Post-Quantum Competition to standardization. They are:

  • KYBER Key Encapsulation Mechanism
  • DILITHIUM Signature Scheme
  • FALCON Signature Scheme
  • SPHINCS+ Signature Scheme

NIST has a very detailed report about the algorithms and some explanations which can be found here:https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2022/NIST.IR.8413.pdf

Its great to see that both KYBER and FALCON are among the algorithms moving on as wolfSSL has already built in support for both of them with our integration with liboqs. So what is next for wolfSSL?

Our plan is to take a 2 pronged approach.

In the near term, we will continue to leverage our integration with liboqs to quickly bring support for DILITHIUM and SPHINCS+ into wolfSSL.

While that is happening, we will also be writing our own implementations of the new algorithms that will be standardized. For our own implementations, the “harvest now, decrypt later” threat model is top of mind and so we will begin with KYBER. We will then move onto DILITHIUM, FALCON and then SPHINCS+.

Do you want to learn more about these algorithms? Do you think we should implement the algorithms in a different order? Let us know! If you have questions on any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfssl.com, or call us at +1 425 245 8247.