13 Aug 2024

NIST publishes first three final post-quantum encryption and signature standards

Quantum technologiesExperimental cross-disciplinary systems
AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.

What was demonstrated

On 13 August 2024 NIST published three final standards. FIPS 203 (ML-KEM, derived from CRYSTALS-Kyber) is the main standard for general encryption and key establishment. FIPS 204 (ML-DSA, derived from CRYSTALS-Dilithium) is the main standard for digital signatures. FIPS 205 (SLH-DSA, derived from SPHINCS+) is a stateless hash-based signature standard that NIST describes as a backup to FIPS 204, based on a different mathematical approach. The announcement does not report measured performance or deployment results.

Why it matters

These are NIST's first finalised post-quantum standards, and they give vendors and governments a fixed specification to implement. NIST encourages system administrators to begin transitioning as soon as possible and says full integration will take time, without giving a timeline.

Caveats

  • A standard specifies an algorithm; it does not show that any product using it is secure in practice. Implementation errors and side-channel leaks are separate risks.
  • The release sets no deadline for retiring older public-key algorithms.
  • NIST describes FIPS 205 as a backup to FIPS 204 in case ML-DSA proves vulnerable. The release reports no deployment results for any of the three standards.
  • The release does not show that a quantum computer able to break current public-key encryption exists. It attributes to some experts the prediction that such a device could appear within a decade.
  • NIST's FIPS 203 page carries a planning note dated 17 November 2025 saying an issue will be corrected in a future revision. The page does not say whether the issue affects the algorithm specification.

Technology profiles

Sources

  1. news
    NIST Releases First 3 Finalized Post-Quantum Encryption Standards
    National Institute of Standards and Technology. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 13 Aug 2024.
  2. standard
    FIPS 203: Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism Standard
    National Institute of Standards and Technology. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Computer Security Resource Center, 13 Aug 2024.

Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.