What should I use?
Step 1
What do you need to do?
- Not a certification. Validate all guidance against your specific threat model, compliance requirements, and operational constraints.
- Primitive selection is necessary but not sufficient. Implementation quality, side-channel resistance, key management, and protocol design matter more.
- Security estimates reflect current public knowledge as of March 2026. Cryptanalysis is ongoing; estimates may change as new attacks are discovered.
- Performance data is approximate. Values are from published benchmarks, not your hardware. Production decisions require application-specific measurement.
- Post-quantum security estimates are conservative. Lattice-based estimates rely on BKZ cost models that may shift as quantum algorithms improve.
- No "avoid"-rated algorithms are currently listed. If we add one, it will be clearly labeled with migration guidance.