Security Protocols PQC Integration

In Progress!

In light of the recent development efforts of post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms, supported by the NIST standardization process, there is little doubt that we will have a set of accepted quantum-resistant cryptographic schemes. Thus, the question of finding suitable replacements for classical cryptographic schemes will very soon no longer be an issue for the IT-community. However, integrating new schemes into existing security protocols used in a wide variety of IT-applications is still a problem that requires solving on different levels. In this paper we present several proposed approaches regarding the integration of PQC schemes into security protocols and applications and identify the benefits and shortcomings of each. By doing so, we systematize the similarities and differences of the presented solutions, and derive a generalized approach, which is applicable to the majority of the existing use cases. On the other hand, we highlight special cases where a general integration approach is not sufficient, and requires further investigation.