Month: 2026-03 — Strengthened formal verification coverage for Keccak-related code paths in the mlkem-c-aarch64 repository, delivering a robust basis for safe maintenance and future enhancements. Key features delivered: - Keccak CBMC Proofs Enhancement: Introduced separate CBMC proofs for pure C implementations and their wrappers, plus proofs for wrappers on top of native implementations with C fallbacks. - Dedicated proofs added for three functions: mlk_keccakf1600_permute_c(), mlk_keccakf1600x4_extract_bytes_c(), mlk_keccakf1600x4_xor_bytes_c(). - Proof infrastructure updates: Updated MAKEFILES to include USE_FUNCTION_CONTRACTS and propagated changes to wrapper and native configurations to ensure consistent proof coverage. - Evidence of end-to-end proof strategy: Created and copied required CBMC contracts from wrappers to the pure C variants to ensure consistency across verification artefacts. Major bugs fixed: - No customer-reported defects resolved this month. Primary focus was to enhance verification coverage and reduce risk via more complete CBMC proofs rather than bug triage. Overall impact and accomplishments: - Substantially improved verification confidence for Keccak implementations across C, wrappers, and native fallback paths, enabling safer code changes and easier future refactors. - Improved maintainability of the proof suite through standardized contracts and consistent proof naming across variants. Technologies/skills demonstrated: - Formal verification with CBMC, contract creation, and proof isolation for cryptographic routines. - Working with mixed-language code paths (pure C, wrappers, and native with C fallback). - Build-system automation and proof configuration via Makefiles. - Cryptography-focused code review and traceability for Keccak-related changes.

February 2026 (2026-02) focus on delivering a more reliable and secure CI/CD pipeline, enabling modular backends for AArch64 and x86_64, strengthening cryptographic assurance through formal verification, and improving code quality and documentation. These efforts improved deployment reliability, reduced maintenance overhead, and provided a clearer path for multi-arch support and cryptographic integrity.

January 2026 monthly work summary focusing on delivering maintainable codebase structure, portability across architectures, and robust benchmarking/testing improvements in pq-code-package projects. Delivered key features and fixes across mldsa-native and mlkem-c-aarch64, enabling smoother releases, improved cross-platform compatibility, and measurable performance evaluation capabilities for CI pipelines.

December 2025 performance summary: Key progress in formal verification, native paths, and test infrastructure across two codebases. Implemented extensive CBMC proofs for native functions in mldsa-native and expanded assembly-backend verification in mlkem-c-aarch64, introduced inline NTT into poly.c to simplify verification, and strengthened macro/namespace standardization. Delivered automated unit tests and robust test infra improvements to support CI stability and faster feedback. Targeted bug fixes increased reliability of cryptographic primitives and build processes, reducing production risk and accelerating development velocity.

November 2025 Monthly Summary for pq-code-package development: - Focused on delivering automated build configurations, runtime dispatch for high-performance backends, and expanded test/CI coverage to boost portability and reliability across architectures. The work targeted mldsa-native and ML/DSA-related components with a strong emphasis on performance, security, and maintainability.

October 2025 focused on delivering a robust Baremetal ARM development environment and CI for MPS3 AN547, expanding build flexibility, stabilizing CI workflows, and advancing ML-DSA/OQS automation and native backend performance across two repositories.

2025-09 highlights: Delivered core MLD safety and configurability improvements across pq-code-package/mldsa-native and pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64, focusing on business value and reliability. Key features delivered include memory operation wrappers (mld_memcpy/mld_memset) with usage migrations, and a new MLD configuration options framework with a custom random bytes pattern (MLD_CONFIG_CUSTOM_RANDOMBYTES). CI and tooling were modernized with configuration-options tests, randomness tests, and CI action upgrades, plus tooling updates (bitwuzla, Zig 0.15, and Nix shells). Deterministic builds were enabled via a basic deterministic example and a CI-exclusion option, along with guards to disable randomized APIs for compatibility. Verification and quality improvements were accelerated by standalone CBMC proofs for crypto_kem checks, expanded correctness checks, and lint/contract checks in mlkem-native.

August 2025 monthly summary for pq-code-package team: Delivered cross-repo enhancements in mldsa-native and dependency updates in mlkem-c-aarch64, focusing on robust testing, improved tooling UX, and code safety. Key outcomes include: advanced code size measurement tooling; ACVP multi-version testing with on-the-fly vectors and version argument; CI modernization with GCC 15 support; linting/formatting UX improvements with colorized output and license checks; correctness and bounds fixes in poly.c addressing overflow; upgraded Bitwuzla in nix build to 0.8.2 for more stable solving. These changes reduce risk, speed up validation cycles, and improve developer experience.

July 2025 monthly summary for pq-code-package/mldsa-native: Focused on strengthening cryptographic correctness and reliability through formal verification, in-depth signing module improvements, and CI-driven quality gates. Delivered formal verification proofs for critical crypto_sign paths, enhanced signing module reliability and code quality, and expanded CI/test coverage to prevent regressions. These efforts reduce risk in crypto signing/verification paths, improve maintainability, and enable broader future verification work.

June 2025 monthly summary focusing on developer work across pq-code-package/mldsa-native and pq-code-package/mlkem-c-aarch64. Emphasis on delivering features that improve CI stability, validation coverage, and build tooling, while strengthening verification and testing analytics. Key features delivered: - mldsa-native: • CI and testing infrastructure cleanup: removed deprecated Zig shells (0.10/0.11), dropped NISTKAT tests, and updated ACVP test data to 1.1.0.40 to streamline the pipeline while preserving coverage. • NTT scaling and verification improvements: added mld_fqscale for field element scaling, refactored invntt_tomont to use the new scaling, and strengthened CBMC proofs with tighter post-conditions and bounds for NTT operations. • SLOTHY dependency upgrade and build tooling: upgraded SLOTHY to HEAD (as of 2025-06-13) and added Neoverse-N1 models plus GCC as a build dependency to support mlkem-native functionality. - mlkem-c-aarch64: • Enhanced Testing Framework: Code Size Reporting and ACVP Test Vector Validation: added code size measurement in testing scripts and Makefiles across examples/root, integrated size reporting into tests, updated ACVP vectors to 1.1.0.40 with new key generation and encapsulation tests, and added crypto_kem_check_pk/check_sk validation functions, including a workaround for an ACVP vector format change. Major bugs fixed: - Reduced CI flakiness and maintenance burden by removing deprecated Zig shells and NISTKAT tests, which previously introduced CI-related brittleness. - Updated ACVP test data and formats to 1.1.0.40 to resolve vector-format discrepancies and ensure reliable test outcomes. Overall impact and accomplishments: - Significantly improved CI speed and reliability, resulting in more frequent and dependable validation cycles. - Strengthened cryptographic verification through stronger CBMC post-conditions and bounds for NTT/invntt operations. - Broadened build applicability by adding Neoverse-N1 support and GCC as a dependency, enabling more representative hardware footprints for mlkem-native. - Enhanced testing analytics with code size reporting, enabling better code growth management and performance budgeting. Technologies/skills demonstrated: - CI/CD optimization (Nix, Zig), ACVP protocol handling, CBMC formal verification, code size measurement, Makefile-centric automation, Neoverse-N1/GCC build tooling, and test data/version management.

May 2025 performance highlights for pq-code-package repositories. Delivered reliability, security, and maintainability improvements with verifiable cryptographic enhancements and up-to-date test data. Key outcomes include robust CI post-check behavior, alignment with the latest ACVP specification, and formal verification work using CBMC for cryptographic primitives.