Protocol Action: 'Post-quantum hybrid ECDHE-MLKEM Key Agreement for TLSv1.3' to Proposed Standard (draft-ietf-tls-ecdhe-mlkem-04.txt)

The IESG <iesg-secretary@ietf.org> Wed, 11 February 2026 18:58 UTC

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From: The IESG <iesg-secretary@ietf.org>
To: IETF-Announce <ietf-announce@ietf.org>
Subject: Protocol Action: 'Post-quantum hybrid ECDHE-MLKEM Key Agreement for TLSv1.3' to Proposed Standard (draft-ietf-tls-ecdhe-mlkem-04.txt)
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Message-ID: <177083632952.1565084.8301607871780870349@dt-datatracker-6bcfd44575-g5gjh>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:58:49 -0800
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CC: The IESG <iesg@ietf.org>, draft-ietf-tls-ecdhe-mlkem@ietf.org, paul.wouters@aiven.io, rfc-editor@rfc-editor.org, tls-chairs@ietf.org, tls@ietf.org
Archived-At: <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/geN8_jv5V8xBh8dTbWqQzDvD4sE>

The IESG has approved the following document:
- 'Post-quantum hybrid ECDHE-MLKEM Key Agreement for TLSv1.3'
  (draft-ietf-tls-ecdhe-mlkem-04.txt) as Proposed Standard

This document is the product of the Transport Layer Security Working Group.

The IESG contact persons are Paul Wouters and Deb Cooley.

A URL of this Internet-Draft is:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls-ecdhe-mlkem/




Technical Summary

   This draft defines three hybrid key agreements for TLS 1.3:
   X25519MLKEM768, SecP256r1MLKEM768, and SecP384r1MLKEM1024 which
   combine a post-quantum KEM with an elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman
   (ECDHE).

Working Group Summary

   The main controversy was about which hybrid groups to mark as Recommended Y in
   the IANA registry.  Consensus could not be reached on this point so all groups
   defined in the document remain as Recommended N.  The general consensus of the
   working group was to move forward with document publication as is.  Updating
   the registry can be done in a future document if the working group can reach
   consensus.

Document Quality

   There is significant implementation of the groups in this document.  In
   particular X25519MLKEM is widely support by browsers including chrome and
   firefox and by CDNs such as cloud flare.  Vendors such as RedHat and AWS also
   support the other groups in this document. Many TLS libraries already support
   or have announced plans to support one or more groups define in this doucment.

   This document has received review from the IETF cryptographic community
   involved in TLS and Post-Quantum Crypto algorithms.

Personnel

   The Document Shepherd for this document is Joseph A. Salowey. The
   Responsible Area Director is Paul Wouters.

Protocol Action: 'Post-quantum hybrid ECDHE-MLKEM… The IESG