Date Published: July 17, 2025
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Author(s)
Elaine Barker (NIST), Lily Chen (NIST), David Cooper (NIST), Dustin Moody (NIST), Andrew Regenscheid (NIST), Murugiah Souppaya (NIST), William Newhouse (NIST), Russ Housley (Vigil Security), Sean Turner (sn3rd), William Barker (Dakota Consulting), Karen Scarfone (Scarfone Cybersecurity)
Announcement
Advances in computing capabilities, cryptographic research, and cryptanalytic techniques necessitate the replacement of cryptographic algorithms that no longer provide adequate security. A typical algorithm transition is costly, takes time, raises interoperability issues, and disrupts operations. Cryptographic (crypto) agility refers to the capabilities needed to replace and adapt cryptographic algorithms in protocols, applications, software, hardware, firmware, and infrastructures while preserving security and ongoing operations.
The initial public draft (ipd) of this paper, released on March 5, 2025, offered a common understanding of challenges and identified existing approaches related to crypto agility. That draft was based on discussions that NIST conducted with various organizations and stakeholders and provided read-ahead material for a virtual Crypto Agility Workshop hosted by NIST on April 17-18, 2025.
This second public draft (2pd) reflects the workshop findings and the feedback received during the first draft’s public comment period. It includes sections on crypto agility for security protocols and applications, crypto agility strategic plans, and considerations for future work.
To advance crypto agility, NIST encourages ongoing dialogue among stakeholders to establish strategies, frameworks, requirements, and metrics tailored to specific sectors and environments. This will help inform a maturity model with key performance indicators (KPIs) and facilitate the development of common crypto Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools.
Cryptographic (crypto) agility refers to the capabilities needed to replace and adapt cryptographic algorithms in protocols, applications, software, hardware, firmware, and infrastructures while preserving security and ongoing operations. This white paper provides an in-depth survey of current approaches to achieving crypto agility. It discusses challenges and trade-offs and identifies approaches for providing operational mechanisms to achieve crypto agility. It also highlights critical working areas that require additional consideration.
Cryptographic (crypto) agility refers to the capabilities needed to replace and adapt cryptographic algorithms in protocols, applications, software, hardware, firmware, and infrastructures while preserving security and ongoing operations. This white paper provides an in-depth survey of current...
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Cryptographic (crypto) agility refers to the capabilities needed to replace and adapt cryptographic algorithms in protocols, applications, software, hardware, firmware, and infrastructures while preserving security and ongoing operations. This white paper provides an in-depth survey of current approaches to achieving crypto agility. It discusses challenges and trade-offs and identifies approaches for providing operational mechanisms to achieve crypto agility. It also highlights critical working areas that require additional consideration.
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Keywords
cryptographic agility; cryptographic algorithm; cryptographic application programming interface (API); cryptographic risk management; cryptographic transition
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