Date Published: September 30, 2026
Author(s)
Chris Celi (NIST), Alexander Calis (NIST), Murugiah Souppaya (NIST), William Barker (Strativia), Karen Kent (Trusted Cyber Annex), Shawn Geddis (Katalyst), Raoul Gabiam (MITRE), Kyle Vitale (MITRE), Stephan Mueller (atsec), Yi Mao (atsec), Barry Fussell (Cisco), Andrew Karcher (Cisco), Douglas Boldt (AWS)
The Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) validates third-party assertions that cryptographic module implementations satisfy the requirements of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-3, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. The current cryptographic module validation process is heavily manual and out of sync with the pace of industry development and deployment of new technology. Thus, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has undertaken the Automated Cryptographic Module Validation Project (ACMVP) to support improvement in the efficiency and timeliness of CMVP operations and processes. The goal is to demonstrate a suite of automated tools and capabilities that make the FIPS 140-3 validation process more efficient and provide higher assurances that test findings reported for modules meet FIPS 140-3 requirements.
This is the second status update report for the project, describing progress made between September 2024 and April 2025 and planned next steps. A prior update of work accomplished can be found in the September 2024 status report. Authoritative implementation guidance will be published separately in the NIST Special Publication (SP) 1800 series. This document outlines progress across each of the three workstreams: the Test Evidence (TE) Workstream, the Protocol Workstream, and the Research Infrastructure Workstream. Each has its own scope and focus area. The combined impact of these workstreams will result in improvements to the overall automation of the CMVP.
The Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) validates third-party assertions that cryptographic module implementations satisfy the requirements of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-3, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. The current cryptographic...
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The Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) validates third-party assertions that cryptographic module implementations satisfy the requirements of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-3, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. The current cryptographic module validation process is heavily manual and out of sync with the pace of industry development and deployment of new technology. Thus, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) has undertaken the Automated Cryptographic Module Validation Project (ACMVP) to support improvement in the efficiency and timeliness of CMVP operations and processes. The goal is to demonstrate a suite of automated tools and capabilities that make the FIPS 140-3 validation process more efficient and provide higher assurances that test findings reported for modules meet FIPS 140-3 requirements.
This is the second status update report for the project, describing progress made between September 2024 and April 2025 and planned next steps. A prior update of work accomplished can be found in the September 2024 status report. Authoritative implementation guidance will be published separately in the NIST Special Publication (SP) 1800 series. This document outlines progress across each of the three workstreams: the Test Evidence (TE) Workstream, the Protocol Workstream, and the Research Infrastructure Workstream. Each has its own scope and focus area. The combined impact of these workstreams will result in improvements to the overall automation of the CMVP.
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Keywords
Automated Cryptographic Module Validation Project (ACMVP); Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP); cryptography; cryptographic module; cryptographic module testing; cryptographic module validation
Control Families
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