PQC Readiness Guide
Post-Quantum Cryptography for AI Infrastructure
NIST finalized FIPS 203, 204, and 205 in 2024. This guide covers what those standards mean for AI agent identity, document signing, and in-transit encryption — and how to migrate before the compliance deadlines.
NIST PQC Algorithm Reference
| Algorithm | Standard | Use Case | Key Size |
|---|
| ML-KEM-1024 | FIPS 203 | Key encapsulation / key exchange | 1568 bytes (public key) |
| ML-DSA-87 | FIPS 204 | Digital signatures | 2592 bytes (public key) |
| SLH-DSA-256s | FIPS 205 | Stateless hash-based signatures | 64 bytes (public key) |
Phase 1: Inventory Your Cryptographic Attack Surface
- Generate a Cryptography Bill of Materials (CBOM) — every RSA, ECDSA, and ECDH instance in your AI infrastructure is a migration target.
- Prioritize "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" exposure: long-lived data (patient records, contracts, credentials) is at risk today even before quantum computers arrive.
- Map each cryptographic primitive to its compliance mandate: NSA CNSA 2.0 (DoD/Federal), CISA PQC guidance, EU eIDAS 2.0 (document signing).
Phase 2: Migrate Agent Identity to ML-DSA
- Replace Ed25519/ECDSA agent certificates with ML-DSA-87. RuntimeAI's Agent Identity Fabric issues PQC-native SPIFFE/X.509 certs out of the box.
- Use hybrid certificates during the transition period (classical + PQC) to maintain backward compatibility with existing verifiers.
- Automate certificate rotation — ML-DSA keys are larger; manual rotation processes will not scale.
Phase 3: Protect In-Transit Communication with ML-KEM
- Deploy PQC-hybrid TLS (X25519 + ML-KEM-1024) for all agent-to-service and service-to-service communication. Both Chrome and BoringSSL already support X25519Kyber768 hybrid.
- Update your service mesh and API gateway TLS configuration before rotating to pure PQC to avoid connectivity interruptions.
- Monitor cipher negotiation logs — any connection falling back to classical-only indicates a component that still needs to be patched.
Phase 4: Upgrade Document and Code Signing
- Replace RSA-2048/4096 and ECDSA signing with ML-DSA-87 or SLH-DSA. Use SLH-DSA for long-term archival (it requires no state and is hash-based).
- For AI-generated documents: QuantoSign issues ML-DSA timestamps that satisfy eIDAS 2.0 and ESIGN Act requirements for long-term legal validity.
- Re-sign existing documents with PQC signatures before the legacy signature's validity period expires — do not wait for the deadline.