An IETF-wide last call asks the steering group to publish pure ML-KEM key agreement for TLS 1.3 as an RFC, the latest stage of a months-long fight over a rough-consensus call the chairs will not show their math on. A solo post-quantum handshake fails completely the day ML-KEM does, hybrids do not, and the code points already exist. The IESG should reject it. Comments close 13 August.
By staffA challenge to whether a long-career former NSA cryptographer can neutrally steward pure-ML-KEM standardization was answered mainly with character defenses and a chair's formal warning, not a structural debate.
By tarpitAfter citing a 7/10 figure among pre-existing participants to advance pure ML-KEM, the chairs told the European Commission's PQC lead they would not disclose numbers, weights, or methods.
By tarpitWhile the TLS working group pushed pure ML-KEM through last call, chairs repeatedly silenced the draft's most rigorous critic over a copyright protest footnote, as signals-intelligence participation went largely unexamined.
By tarpitAcross draft-ietf-tls-mlkem-05, -07, and -08 the working group split over whether an RFC for standalone post-quantum key establishment was necessary plumbing or a dangerous signal. On 19 July 2026 the chairs found rough consensus to advance it anyway.
By tarpit