Research

Watch · narrated whiteboard episodesL3

ML-DSA in Depth: What the Proofs, the Parameters and the Deployments Actually Rest On

FIPS 204 calls ML-DSA strongly unforgeable, hedges its signing randomness, offers three ways to sign, and the IETF has now fixed how its keys and signatures travel in certificates, messages and tokens. This paper series reads each of those decisions at the level of its evidence: what the quantum random-oracle proof actually assumes and where it was repaired, why a byte-exact signature matters for logs, tokens and ledgers, which fault attacks the rnd input stops and which it does not, what moves out of a hardware module when signing is split at the message representative, and what RFC 9881, RFC 9882, RFC 9964 and the composite draft settle or leave to the deployer. Every topic is tied to the signatures AI agents now depend on: signed tool calls, agent identities and model provenance.

Murali Chillakuru·5 episodes
  1. 20 min Episode 1What the ML-DSA Proof Actually Rests On: MLWE, SelfTargetMSIS and the Quantum Random OracleA moderator and a cryptographer read the strong-unforgeability claim for ML-DSA clause by clause: the three assumptions, the quantum gap, the priced fallback, the 2023 repair, and an assurance statement for agent keys.
  2. 20 min Episode 2Strong Unforgeability and the Hint: Why a Byte-Exact Signature Matters for Logs, Tokens and LedgersA moderator and a cryptographer follow one signed agent request through replay caches, audit logs and ledgers to show where ML-DSA's strong unforgeability comes from, how the draft standard nearly lost it, and where systems still lose it on their own.
  3. 18 min Episode 3Deterministic or Hedged: What the rnd Input Changes When an Attacker Can Fault the SignerA moderator and a hardware-security cryptographer follow one robot controller's signing key through the published fault attacks on ML-DSA, separating what FIPS 204's hedged signing stops from what it leaves standing.
  4. 18 min Episode 4Pure, Pre-Hash or External Mu: Splitting an ML-DSA Signature Across a Hardware BoundaryA moderator and a cryptography architect follow a forty-gigabyte model release and an agent signing gateway through ML-DSA's three ways of signing large messages, and find what a hardware module stops being able to check.
  5. 18 min Episode 5ML-DSA in Certificates and Tokens: Key Formats, Composites and What the RFCs Leave to YouA moderator and a P K I architect walk an agent identity platform through the three ML-DSA RFCs and the composite draft, separating what the standards settle from the decisions they leave to deployers.