mlkem-c-aarch64 is a collection of MLKEM implementations for CPUs based on the Armv8-A and Armv9-A architectures.
The primary goals of this project are as follows:
There are tensions between these goals:
In doubt, mlkem-c-aarch64 chooses assurance and ease of use over performance: We only include implementations into mlkem-c-aarch64 which are manually auditable or (ideally and) for which we see a path towards formal verification. All assembly should be as readable as possible and micro-optimization ideally deferred to automated tooling such as SLOTHY. Ultimately, mlkem-c-aarch64 strives for constant-time implementations for which the C-code is, at minimum, verified to be free of undefined behaviour, and where all assembly is functionally verified.
mlkem-c-aarch64 aims to provide a portfolio of implementations jointly providing competitive performance for most Armv8-A/Armv9-A microarchitectures. For some specific microarchitectures of particular interest, mlkem-c-aarch64 may also provide CPU-specific implementations. Initially, our benchmarking platforms are:
Please reach out to the mlkem-c-aarch64 maintainers or open an issue if you would like to see benchmarking on other microarchitectures.
At this point, we do not provide implementations optimized for memory usage (code / RAM). If you need a memory-optimized implementation and the implementation provided by MLKEM-C-Generic is not of sufficient performance to your application, please contact us.
Eventually, we aim to unify the (shared) C-part of the implementations provided by mlkem-c-aarch64 with the implementations in mlkem-c-generic. Initially, however, we will allow some divergence, e.g. to explore interfaces to 2-/4-/8-way parallel Keccak implementations which are essential for high-performance implementations of MLKEM.
mlkem-c-aarch64 is currently a work in progress and we do not recommend relying on it at this point. WE DO NOT CURRENTLY RECOMMEND RELYING ON THIS LIBRARY IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT OR TO PROTECT ANY SENSITIVE DATA. Once we have the first stable version, this notice will be removed.
The current code is compatible with the standard
branch of the official MLKEM repository.
All the development and build dependencies are specified in flake.nix. We recommend installing them using nix.
Setup with nix
Running nix develop
will execute a bash shell with the development environment specified in flake.nix.
Alternatively, you can enable direnv
by using direnv allow
, allowing it to handle the environment setup for you.
As flake is still an experimental feature of nix, --experimental-features 'nix-command flakes'
is needed when running the nix command. Alternatively, add the following to your ~/.config/nix/nix.conf
or /etc/nix/nix.conf
:
experimental-features = nix-command flakes
If you are not using nix, please ensure you have installed the same versions as specified in flake.nix.
After running nix develop
you should automatically have a number of support scripts in your PATH:
format
formats all files. The format is enforced by our CI, so you should run this script prior to committing.tests
run functional, kat tests natively or emulate them using QEMU
. For information on how to use the script, please refer to the --help
option.We are actively seeking contributors who can help us build mlkem-c-aarch64. If you are interested, please contact us, or volunteer for any of the open issues.
If you are a potential consumer of mlkem-c-aarch64, please reach out to us. We're interested in hearing the way you are considering using mlkem-c-aarch64 and could benefit from additional features. If you have specific feature requests, please open an issue.