FIPS 140-3 Compliance

PQC-IIoT incorporates mandatory features required for FIPS 140-3 certification, easing the path for official validation of products built using this library.

Approved Mode of Operation

The library enforces an Approved Mode of Operation which restricts the algorithms and configurations to those vetted by NIST (or in the process of standardization like Kyber/Falcon).

Enabling Approved Mode

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
// This flag enforces FIPS checks
std::env::set_var("PQC_IIOT_FIPS_MODE", "1");
}

Power-On Self-Tests (POST)

Upon initialization, the library automatically runs Known Answer Tests (KAT) for:

  • AES-256-GCM (Encryption/Decryption)
  • SHA-256 (Hashing)
  • Kyber-1024 (KEM Encapsulate/Decapsulate)
  • Falcon-512 (Sign/Verify)
  • Hybrid PQH Recovery (Kyber + X25519)

If any test fails, the library panics and refuses to start, ensuring no cryptographic operations are performed with faulty logic.

Galactic Apex (V4) Assurance

In addition to POST, the V4 tier introduces:

  • Property-Based PCT: Key generation is validated across 100+ random scenarios using Proptest before the first use.
  • Hybrid Enforcement: All session keys MUST be derived from both PQC and Classical ECC inputs.

Integrity Checks

A software integrity check (using SHA-256) verifies that critical configuration and module components have not been tampered with on disk before loading.

Conditional Self-Tests

  • Pairwisie Consistency Test (PCT): Every time a new key pair is generated, a PCT is run (Sign/Verify for signature keys, Encaps/Decaps for KEM keys) to verify correctness before the keys are used.

Zeroization

Sensitive data (Private Keys, Shared Secrets) is actively overwritten with zeros using the zeroize crate when the memory is deallocated (Drop trait) or explicitly cleared.