Auditable & minimal JS implementation of post-quantum public-key cryptography.
- 🔒 Auditable
- 🔻 Tree-shakeable: unused code is excluded from your builds
- 🔍 Reliable: tests ensure correctness
- 🦾 ML-KEM & CRYSTALS-Kyber: lattice-based kem from FIPS-203
- 🔋 ML-DSA & CRYSTALS-Dilithium: lattice-based signatures from FIPS-204
- 🐈 SLH-DSA & SPHINCS+: hash-based Winternitz signatures from FIPS-205
- 🪶 37KB (15KB gzipped) for everything with bundled hashes
Take a glance at GitHub Discussions for questions and support.
[!IMPORTANT] NIST published IR 8547, prohibiting classical cryptography (RSA, DSA, ECDSA, ECDH) after 2035. Australian ASD does same thing after 2030. Take it into an account while designing a new cryptographic system.
noble cryptography — high-security, easily auditable set of contained cryptographic libraries and tools.
- Zero or minimal dependencies
- Highly readable TypeScript / JS code
- PGP-signed releases and transparent NPM builds
- All libraries: ciphers, curves, hashes, post-quantum, 4kb secp256k1 / ed25519
- Check out homepage for reading resources, documentation and apps built with noble
npm install @noble/post-quantum
deno add jsr:@noble/post-quantum
deno doc jsr:@noble/post-quantum# command-line documentation
We support all major platforms and runtimes. For React Native, you may need a polyfill for getRandomValues. A standalone file noble-post-quantum.js is also available.
// import * from '@noble/post-quantum'; // Error: use sub-imports instead
import { ml_kem512, ml_kem768, ml_kem1024 } from '@noble/post-quantum/ml-kem';
import { ml_dsa44, ml_dsa65, ml_dsa87 } from '@noble/post-quantum/ml-dsa';
import {
slh_dsa_sha2_128f, slh_dsa_sha2_128s,
slh_dsa_sha2_192f, slh_dsa_sha2_192s,
slh_dsa_sha2_256f, slh_dsa_sha2_256s,
slh_dsa_shake_128f, slh_dsa_shake_128s,
slh_dsa_shake_192f, slh_dsa_shake_192s,
slh_dsa_shake_256f, slh_dsa_shake_256s,
} from '@noble/post-quantum/slh-dsa';
// import { ml_kem768 } from 'npm:@noble/post-quantum@0.1.0/ml-kem'; // Deno- ML-KEM / Kyber
- ML-DSA / Dilithium
- SLH-DSA / SPHINCS+
- What should I use?
- Security
- Speed
- Contributing & testing
- License
import { ml_kem512, ml_kem768, ml_kem1024 } from '@noble/post-quantum/ml-kem';
import { randomBytes } from '@noble/post-quantum/utils';
// 1. [Alice] generates secret & public keys, then sends publicKey to Bob
const seed = randomBytes(64); // seed is optional
const aliceKeys = ml_kem768.keygen(seed);
// 2. [Bob] generates shared secret for Alice publicKey
// bobShared never leaves [Bob] system and is unknown to other parties
const { cipherText, sharedSecret: bobShared } = ml_kem768.encapsulate(aliceKeys.publicKey);
// 3. [Alice] gets and decrypts cipherText from Bob
const aliceShared = ml_kem768.decapsulate(cipherText, aliceKeys.secretKey);
// Now, both Alice and Both have same sharedSecret key
// without exchanging in plainText: aliceShared == bobShared
// Warning: Can be MITM-ed
const carolKeys = kyber1024.keygen();
const carolShared = kyber1024.decapsulate(cipherText, carolKeys.secretKey); // No error!
notDeepStrictEqual(aliceShared, carolShared); // Different key!Lattice-based key encapsulation mechanism, defined in FIPS-203.
See website and repo. There are some concerns with regards to security: see djb blog and mailing list. Old, incompatible version (Kyber) is not provided. Open an issue if you need it.
[!WARNING] Unlike ECDH, KEM doesn't verify whether it was "Bob" who've sent the ciphertext. Instead of throwing an error when the ciphertext is encrypted by a different pubkey,
decapsulatewill simply return a different shared secret. ML-KEM is also probabilistic and relies on quality of CSPRNG.
import { ml_dsa44, ml_dsa65, ml_dsa87 } from '@noble/post-quantum/ml-dsa';
import { utf8ToBytes, randomBytes } from '@noble/post-quantum/utils';
const seed = randomBytes(32); // seed is optional
const keys = ml_dsa65.keygen(seed);
const msg = utf8ToBytes('hello noble');
const sig = ml_dsa65.sign(keys.secretKey, msg);
const isValid = ml_dsa65.verify(keys.publicKey, msg, sig);Lattice-based digital signature algorithm, defined in FIPS-204. See website and repo. The internals are similar to ML-KEM, but keys and params are different.
import {
slh_dsa_sha2_128f, slh_dsa_sha2_128s,
slh_dsa_sha2_192f, slh_dsa_sha2_192s,
slh_dsa_sha2_256f, slh_dsa_sha2_256s,
slh_dsa_shake_128f, slh_dsa_shake_128s,
slh_dsa_shake_192f, slh_dsa_shake_192s,
slh_dsa_shake_256f, slh_dsa_shake_256s,
} from '@noble/post-quantum/slh-dsa';
import { utf8ToBytes } from '@noble/post-quantum/utils';
const keys2 = sph.keygen();
const msg2 = utf8ToBytes('hello noble');
const sig2 = sph.sign(keys2.secretKey, msg2);
const isValid2 = sph.verify(keys2.publicKey, msg2, sig2);Hash-based digital signature algorithm, defined in FIPS-205. See website and repo. We implement spec v3.1 with FIPS adjustments.
There are many different kinds,
but basically sha2 / shake indicate internal hash, 128 / 192 / 256 indicate security level, and s /f indicate trade-off (Small / Fast).
SLH-DSA is slow: see benchmarks for key size & speed.
| Speed | Key size | Sig size | Created in | Popularized in | Post-quantum? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSA | Normal | 256B - 2KB | 256B - 2KB | 1970s | 1990s | No |
| ECC | Normal | 32 - 256B | 48 - 128B | 1980s | 2010s | No |
| ML-KEM | Fast | 1.6 - 31KB | 1KB | 1990s | 2020s | Yes |
| ML-DSA | Normal | 1.3 - 2.5KB | 2.5 - 4.5KB | 1990s | 2020s | Yes |
| SLH-DSA | Slow | 32 - 128B | 17 - 50KB | 1970s | 2020s | Yes |
| FN-DSA | Slow | 0.9 - 1.8KB | 0.6 - 1.2KB | 1990s | 2020s | Yes |
We suggest to use ECC + ML-KEM for key agreement, ECC + SLH-DSA for signatures.
ML-KEM and ML-DSA are lattice-based. SLH-DSA is hash-based, which means it is built on top of older, more conservative primitives. NIST guidance for security levels:
- Category 3 (~AES-192): ML-KEM-768, ML-DSA-65, SLH-DSA-[SHA2/shake]-192[s/f]
- Category 5 (~AES-256): ML-KEM-1024, ML-DSA-87, SLH-DSA-[SHA2/shake]-256[s/f]
NIST recommends to use cat-3+, while australian ASD only allows cat-5 after 2030.
For hashes, use SHA512 or SHA3-512 (not SHA256); and for ciphers ensure AES-256 or ChaCha.
The library has not been independently audited yet.
There is no protection against side-channel attacks. Keep in mind that even hardware versions ML-KEM are vulnerable.
If you see anything unusual: investigate and report.
Noble is the fastest JS implementation of post-quantum algorithms. WASM libraries can be faster.
| OPs/sec | Keygen | Signing | Verification | Shared secret |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ECC x/ed25519 | 10270 | 5110 | 1050 | 1470 |
| ML-KEM-768 | 2300 | 2000 | ||
| ML-DSA65 | 386 | 120 | 367 | |
| SLH-DSA-SHA2-192f | 166 | 6 | 111 |
For SLH-DSA, SHAKE slows everything down 8x, and -s versions do another 20-50x slowdown.
Detailed benchmarks on Apple M2:
ML-KEM
keygen
├─ML-KEM-512 x 3,784 ops/sec @ 264μs/op
├─ML-KEM-768 x 2,305 ops/sec @ 433μs/op
└─ML-KEM-1024 x 1,510 ops/sec @ 662μs/op
encrypt
├─ML-KEM-512 x 3,283 ops/sec @ 304μs/op
├─ML-KEM-768 x 1,993 ops/sec @ 501μs/op
└─ML-KEM-1024 x 1,366 ops/sec @ 731μs/op
decrypt
├─ML-KEM-512 x 3,450 ops/sec @ 289μs/op
├─ML-KEM-768 x 2,035 ops/sec @ 491μs/op
└─ML-KEM-1024 x 1,343 ops/sec @ 744μs/op
ML-DSA
keygen
├─ML-DSA44 x 669 ops/sec @ 1ms/op
├─ML-DSA65 x 386 ops/sec @ 2ms/op
└─ML-DSA87 x 236 ops/sec @ 4ms/op
sign
├─ML-DSA44 x 123 ops/sec @ 8ms/op
├─ML-DSA65 x 120 ops/sec @ 8ms/op
└─ML-DSA87 x 78 ops/sec @ 12ms/op
verify
├─ML-DSA44 x 618 ops/sec @ 1ms/op
├─ML-DSA65 x 367 ops/sec @ 2ms/op
└─ML-DSA87 x 220 ops/sec @ 4ms/op
SLH-DSA (_shake is 8x slower):
| sig size | keygen | sign | verify | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sha2_128f | 18088 | 4ms | 90ms | 6ms |
| sha2_128s | 7856 | 260ms | 2000ms | 2ms |
| sha2_192f | 35664 | 6ms | 160ms | 9ms |
| sha2_192s | 16224 | 380ms | 3800ms | 3ms |
| sha2_256f | 49856 | 15ms | 340ms | 9ms |
| sha2_256s | 29792 | 250ms | 3400ms | 4ms |
-
npm install && npm run build && npm testwill build the code and run tests. -
npm run lint/npm run formatwill run linter / fix linter issues. -
npm run benchwill run benchmarks, which may need their deps first (npm run bench:install) -
cd build && npm install && npm run build:releasewill build single file
Check out github.com/paulmillr/guidelines for general coding practices and rules.
See paulmillr.com/noble for useful resources, articles, documentation and demos related to the library.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Paul Miller (https://paulmillr.com)
See LICENSE file.