A talk at TASK

Notes

  • RSA, DHKE, ECC are all vulnerable to Shor’s Algorithm (DLP, Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm)
  • Grover’s Algorithm attacks Symmetric Cryptography, not as important as Shor’s Algorithm
  • Shors will always convert to polynomial time
  • Grovers search will reduce security level of symmetric crypto. But, you can increase the key size of symmetirc crypto and it usually will be safe
  • Grover’s search increases the speed of the algorithm by a quadratic factor
  • Harvest Now Decrypt Later, no quantum computers at the moment, but future we will have
  • NIST POC standardization timeline:
    • 2015 - NIST says we should submit new algorithms for quantum cryptography
    • 2016 - Short listen 69 algorithms that can be used - lattice based, hash based, ECC based
    • NIST 203, 204, 205 released
  • NIST 203
  • NIST 204
  • NIST 205
  • Lattice - its a grid with dotted points in thousands of dimensions
  • Module LWE
  • Module Short Integer Solution
  • A 768-bit public key can result in 37x increase (ML-KEM public key)
  • ML-DSA - how PQ signing works
  • You have a context tree, everytime you do a signature, different applications can also do a signature. The verification is ad-hoc.
    • For every new application, we must send a different context then
  • Hybrid algorithms: both classical algorithms and quantum algorithms
  • Dont know what will happen forward with quantum algorithms - we need to have a hybrid approach to be safe
  • Layers of complexity:
      1. Configure APIs - OpenSSL and nginx already have existing configuration options
      1. Dataflow like TPM, units change the key size, if you dont it will break
      1. Application type - decide on different algorithms (IOT device must use a smaller key size)
  • Most OpenSSL and nginx already have integration these algorithms
  • TLS 1.3 allows ML-KEM to be plugged in nicely.
  • TLS 1.3 allows classical keys and quantum keys (Hybrid approach)
  • Performance between quantum and classical:
    • ML-KEM key generation 12x faster
    • ML-KEM encapsulation is far faster than RSA, but similar to ECC
    • TLS-handshake with hybrid ML-KEM 2ms of overhead, but then settles on a symmetric key, so no overhead after that
    • ML-DSA ~14kb for each handshake
    • IETF TA WG actively in development unfortunately, PKI is not secure key
  • A docker image openquantumsafe allows for very experimental setup (https://hub.docker.com/u/openquantumsafe), you can test some quantum algorithm and some hybrid ones
  • TLS handshake is slow, what dominates is network latency
  • ATMs and physical machines have hard-coded crypto, haha its harder to migrate
  • How to scan your cryptographic estate:
    • Use existing sources (Cert managers, HSM logs, EDR/NDR tools SBOM extensions)
    • Filesystem scans detect crypto library calls, key files to detect what algos you are using
    • Wireshark to check for what algos are being used (TLS handshake)
    • testssl.sh to use command line check
    • static analysis of the code, Semgrep
  • Crypto agility, but there are more agilities now:
    • Protocol agility
    • Hardware agility
    • API agaility
    • Design agility
  • Only 7% of US agencies are quantum secure
  • Five phase quantum migration roadmap:
    • Discover what crypto systems you are already using
    • Assess risk, what data is at risk, categorize the risk levels
    • Experiment with different PQC algorithms, use docker images, openSSL modes of operation
    • Migrate, first migrate with hybrid, then depending on the circumstances you can move to pure quantum
    • Governance policy, crypto SBOM
  • Key takewaways:
    • Post quantum crypto migration is a hard deadline 2035, 2030 is when everything should be moved
    • Start with hybrid movement to TLS endpoints
    • Tons of complexity involved like key size increase or API endpoints
    • API breaking changes could be caused, when configurations are changed
    • Make sure to build crypto agility
  • RFCs in progress by IETF:
    • VPN
    • Hybrid scheme
    • Digital certificates
  • Resources:
    • Open quantum safe - lots of docker images
    • New standards NIST standards
    • NCCoE migration guide
  • ML-DSA has the option for you to use ephemeral seeds, so if you care about space, this is an option aswell