Funny to read 1-liner changelog versus the plethora of articles just few years ago along the line of "Quantum computer, it might just change our entire lives and make privacy impossible!".
The simple addition (of a not so simple algorithm) to the software (and few others, e.g. OpenSSL) and voila, me can move on with our daily lives. Cryptography and computational complexity are truly amazing.
ML-KEM-768 is fast as an algorithm, faster than X25519 in terms of pure computation, but uses large keys, so has higher overheads on small payloads. Most of the time, they’re about equal, or the absolute time is so slow it doesn’t matter.
Most folks now are doing hybrid ML-KEM and X25519 to guard against undiscovered flaws in ML-KEM.
Here is a 6-part article about the topic: https://blog.cr.yp.to/20251004-weakened.html
ML-KEM based on a lattice problem called "Learning With Errors", and there are similar lattice-based algorithms which have no known quantum speedup. Most traditional asymmetric encryption algorithms are based on number-theoretic assumptions like the discrete logarithm problem or the RSA assumption, which are broken by Shor's algorithm.
Symmetric cryptography (AES and SHA hash functions) are post-quantum resistant for now. Grover's algorithm technically cuts their asymptotic security in half, but that doesn't parallelize, so practically there is no known good quantum attack, and cryptographers and standards agencies tend to not worry about that. You can keep using those.
[edit: according to the sister comment posted simulataneously ML-KEM is faster than X25519. good to know!]
zdkaster•3h ago
The 2.5 series are improvements for 64 bit Windows and the introduction of Kyber (aka ML-KEM or FIPS-203) as PQC encryption algorithm.
The old 2.4 series reaches end-of-life in just two months.