Month: 2025-11 — Focused on enabling OpenTitan integration in the pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64 repo by updating CI/dependency management and aligning with upstream mlkem-native. Key changes improved CI reliability and documentation clarity, facilitating smoother OpenTitan adoption and faster feedback cycles.

October 2025: Strengthened formal verification, CI reliability, and hardware acceleration across the pq-code-package repos. Delivered significant CBMC proof modeling enhancements, expanded Baremetal CI and build system capabilities, enabled hardware-accelerated Keccak processing with broader CI coverage, and improved code safety and consistency. The work enhanced verification confidence, CI stability, and maintainability while enabling safer, higher-performance cryptographic primitives.

September 2025 focused on delivering a resilient, security-aware, cross-architecture platform for ML-DSA workflows, with an emphasis on integrating liboqs, modernizing CI/CD, and strengthening cryptographic testing and verification pipelines. The work enabled deeper cryptographic interoperability, improved tooling reliability, and faster verification cycles that support secure deployments across environments.

August 2025 monthly summary focusing on delivering measurable business value through performance improvements, build reliability, and cross-architecture support across two repositories. In pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64, CI stability and compatibility upgrades were implemented by upgrading liboqs to 0.14.0 and aws-lc to 1.56.0, adding clang-21 support to the CI/test workflows, adjusting constant-time tests, and removing an obsolete AWS-LC patch in favor of upstream changes to simplify builds and improve reliability. In pq-code-package/mldsa-native, native AVX2 and AArch64 implementations for poly_decompose and poly_caddq were added to accelerate polynomial operations in cryptographic routines, complemented by a codebase refactor that inlines rounding and reduction logic into headers and updates Makefile-based CBMC proofs to reduce function-call overhead and streamline proofs. Overall, the changes improve performance of cryptographic primitives, reduce build complexity, and strengthen maintainability, with clear benefits to release reliability, developer velocity, and upstream alignment.

July 2025 highlights across pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64 and pq-code-package/mldsa-native. Delivered features that strengthen cryptographic validation, modernized the build environment, and improved code quality and maintainability. Key outcomes include expanded ACVP coverage with on-demand test vectors and versioned testing in CI, upgraded formal verification tooling with reproducible CBMC proofs, and modernization of dependencies and naming conventions to reduce risk and improve onboarding. Key features and improvements: - ACVP Testing Enhancements and CI Coverage: on-the-fly testvector download, --version targeting for ACVP tests, and CI iterations across multiple ACVP versions to broaden cryptographic validation coverage. - CBMC Tooling and Proof Reproducibility: updated CBMC to 6.7.1, reverted to Z3 4.12.6, and enhanced CBMC proof documentation to ensure consistent, repeatable verification workflows. - Dependency Upgrades and Build Environment Modernization: upgraded liboqs and AWS-LC; autogenerating RV64 twiddle factors to improve cryptographic constants accuracy and maintainability. - Code Quality and Stability Improvements: introduced mlk_zetas namespace to prevent conflicts; refactored core types to mld_* prefixes (mld_poly, mld_polyvecl, mld_polyveck) and aligned static functions naming; ensured isolated builds. - Documentation and Integration Guidance: updated README and user-facing docs to reflect new applications and mlkem-native integration versions, supporting accurate adoption timelines and versioning. Impact and business value: - Expanded cryptographic validation coverage reduces risk in production deployments. - Reproducible proofs and stable builds shorten verification cycles and improve auditability. - Up-to-date dependencies and improved naming conventions lower maintenance burden and accelerate onboarding for engineers and customers. - Clear integration guidance supports faster customer adoption and reduces integration errors.

June 2025 performance summary for pq-code-package repositories. The work across mldsa-native, mlkem-c-aarch64, and liboqs focused on strengthening CI reliability, broadening cross-platform support, and advancing cryptographic software quality. Delivered measurable business value through faster feedback loops, better test coverage, and cleaner maintenance of core libraries.

May 2025 focused on verification rigor, performance optimization, and CI/DevOps modernization across the two codebases: pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64 and pq-code-package/mldsa-native. Deliverables strengthened cryptographic correctness, improved build reliability, and accelerated cryptographic workloads, positioning us for heavier workloads and faster feedback loops. Key activities included upgrading the CBMC toolchain to 6.6.0, delivering HOL-Light-based proofs for AArch64 mlk components and multiple Keccak variants, restructuring MLkem for maintainability, enabling Neon/AVX2 accelerations, and modernizing CI and infrastructure (Dependabot, nixpkgs updates, cache-aware workflows, and EC2 benchmarking).

April 2025: Focused on stabilizing CI/benchmarking, strengthening the native MLKEM path, and governance through licensing and build quality improvements. Delivered concrete improvements to CI tooling, benchmark reliability, and dependency updates; added hardware coverage with Mac Mini M1; expanded formal verification contracts and proofs; and enforced stricter build quality checks.

March 2025 development month focused on expanding CI/CD reliability, cross-architecture benchmarking capabilities, and strengthening cryptographic integrations across three repositories. Delivered concrete features, fixed key issues, and advanced technical readiness that drives faster feedback, broader platform support, and secure crypto implementations.

February 2025: Delivered substantial CI/benchmarking, security hardening, automated verification, and governance improvements across two repositories. Focused on reliability of cross‑platform performance measurement, stronger security posture, and maintainable code quality to enable faster, safer releases.

January 2025 monthly summary for pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64. Focused on delivering formal verification, reliability, and performance improvements across the Keccak/SHA3 implementation and its build/test infrastructure, with rising cross-arch quality and portability for production use.

December 2024 performance summary for pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64: Delivered strategic portability, verification, and maintainability improvements across code, CI, and build tooling. The work emphasizes business value through robust cross-architecture support, formal verification readiness, and streamlined development workflows.

November 2024 performance summary focused on formal verification readiness, native architecture polish, and reliability improvements. Delivered CBMC specifications and proofs for core polynomial operations (poly_sub, polyvec_add, polyvec_compress, pack_sk, unpack_sk, polyvec_ntt) with a corrected gen_matrix_entry proof. Cleaned CBMC scaffolding and build hygiene to reduce maintenance and tighten bounds/formatting. Renamed the target from mlkem-c-aarch64 to mlkem-native to reflect the native implementation. Added _ctx_release() to support dynamic contexts for FIPS202 integrations. Refactored poly compression APIs (poly_compress_du / poly_decompress_du) into a dedicated function and updated related proofs; adjusted polyvec references to dv forms. Benchmarks: fixed bench_components; stabilized EC2 bench runs; expanded benchmarks to cover poly_compress_du + poly_decompress_du; updated alpha-release docs and licensing, plus C90 compatibility fixes and rej_uniform native implementation with added padding.