¶ºÒõ¹Ý

In 2024, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released new standards for post-quantum cryptography (PQC). The certificate and PKI industries have been working hard to develop, test, and implement these standards, and ¶ºÒõ¹Ý is right in the middle of it all.

At the heart of this effort is the need for interoperability—a critical factor in ensuring that the global PKI ecosystem remains functional, secure, and universally trusted as it continues to evolve. At ¶ºÒõ¹Ý, we’re contributing to this transition with tools like , which will help align implementations with the new standards while maintaining the highest level of trust and reliability.

The role of pkilint in a successful transition to PQC

One of the key challenges in introducing new cryptographic standards is ensuring that implementations work consistently across the global PKI ecosystem. That’s where pkilint, ¶ºÒõ¹Ý’s open-source technical compliance tool, plays a critical role.

While the tool was originally developed to ensure the correctness of X.509 certificates—widely used in the PKI ecosystem—it has broader applications, also serving as the linting framework for other types of ASN.1 documents, such as CRLs, that form the backbone of many cryptographic structures.

ASN.1, or Abstract Syntax Notation One, is a standardized format for defining data structures. In the context of PKI, it’s used to encode digital certificates, which makes pkilint an indispensable tool for verifying that certificates and related documents conform to specifications.

But what really sets pkilint apart is its ability to facilitate interoperability testing during the transition to PQC. When new algorithms are introduced, they have to be integrated into existing certificate formats and PKI protocols in a way that ensures compatibility. The pkilint tool is specifically designed to identify issues with how these algorithms are encoded, structured, and interpreted across different systems.

For example, as post-quantum algorithms are integrated into X.509 certificates, pkilint can:

• Validate that these algorithms are used in accordance with the new standards.
• Ensure that the encoded structures remain interoperable across various PKI implementations.
• Identify deviations or ambiguities that could create obstacles for interoperability.

By providing a consistent, automated way to test certificate structures, pkilint prevents fragmentation and reduces the risk of implementation errors, ensuring the certificates using PQC algorithms can be recognized and trusted across browsers, devices, and systems worldwide.

Why is interoperability testing so important for PQC?

Interoperability isn’t just a technical goal—it's a necessity for maintaining trust and security in the global digital ecosystem.

Without interoperability, the adoption of new cryptographic algorithms would lead to isolated silos of incompatible systems, breaking the seamless interactions that today’s web relies on. Disparities in how vendors implement standards could open up security gaps or vulnerabilities. And if a certificate authority (CA) issues a post-quantum certificate using one interpretation of a standard but browsers or applications don’t implement it the same way, the two systems may not align. The certificate could then fail to validate, which would cause disruptions to secure connections.

Tools like pkilint address these challenges head-on. By validating that new standards are implemented correctly and consistently, pkilint ensures that the industry can adopt PQC without sacrificing interoperability or security.

Collaboration: The driving force behind interoperability

Perhaps the biggest driving force behind PQC interoperability is global collaboration, something that’s facilitated and celebrated at the IETF PQC Hackathons. Since November 2022, these group working sessions have provided a platform for the cryptographic community to work together on implementing and testing PQC standards.

At this year’s PQC Conference in Austin, I shared the progress the PQC Hackathon group has made since its inception. The team has achieved remarkable results, including:

• Developing implementations of draft PQC specifications and providing concrete examples for evaluation.
• Offering detailed feedback to authors of draft standards to improve clarity and practicality.
• Creating artifacts that serve as benchmarks for interoperability testing across various systems.

These Hackathons are proof of the massive impact collaboration has on creating practical solutions. By testing implementations in real-world scenarios, the Hackathon team ensures that PQC standards aren’t just theoretically sound—they're also usable across diverse platforms.

The latest developments in digital trust

Curious about ¶ºÒõ¹Ý’s open-source projects? Visit our Insights page for more details, or visit our to test pkilint out for yourself. And if you want to learn more about topics like post-quantum cryptography and compliance, subscribe to the ¶ºÒõ¹Ý blog to ensure you never miss a story.