The transition to post-quantum cryptography is an emerging necessity, but PQC algorithms like ML-DSA introduce a significant hurdle for signing: keys and signatures are orders of magnitude larger, ballooning metadata, egress and storage costs for transparency ecosystems.
In this talk, we present the design for PQC for Sigstore, showing how migrating to quantum-resistant algorithms is a greenfield opportunity to drastically simplify artifact signing and verification with Sigstore. Instead of just swapping out classical algorithms, we leveraged this unique opportunity to revisit the system architecture and focus the design around the transparency log as the primary enabler of simplicity and auditability.
Sigstore will provide “keyless” identity-bound signatures rooted in transparency. We’ll explore how this shift shrinks verification metadata down to just a signed checkpoint while still preserving Sigstore’s security and threat models. Finally, we will discuss how a new leaf format elegantly solves PQC signing algorithm storage overhead while concurrently preventing log poisoning and preserving user privacy.
Speaker
Hayden Blauzvern is a technical lead on Google’s Open Source Security Team, focused on making open-source software supply chain more secure and auditable. Hayden is a maintainer and the community chair on the Sigstore project.
