Keygen Parameters¶

No mandatory parameters are required for generating a key pair. To set explicit parameters, use EVP_PKEY_CTX_set_params() after calling EVP_PKEY_keygen_init().

"seed" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_ML_KEM_SEED) <octet string>

Internally, ML-KEM generates keys using a 64-byte random value (seed), which is the concatenation of the 32-byte d and z parameters described in FIPS 203. This optional parameter can be used to set a pre-determined seed prior to keypair generation.

Generated keys default to retaining the seed used. The seed is also by default retained when keys are loaded from PKCS#8 files in the seed format. When available, the seed parameter is also used during key export and import, with keys (by default) regenerated from the seed even when also provided on import. See "Provider configuration parameters" below for related controls.

When the seed is retained, it is also available as a gettable parameter, and private key output to PKCS#8 files will by default include the seed. When the seed was not initially known, or was not retained, PKCS#8 private key files will contain only the private key in FIPS 203 "dk" format.

"properties" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_PROPERTIES) <UTF8 string>

Sets properties to be used when fetching algorithm implementations used for ML-KEM hashing operations.

Use EVP_PKEY_CTX_set_params(3) after calling EVP_PKEY_keygen_init(3).

Common parameters¶

In addition to the common parameters that all keytypes should support (see "Common Information Parameters" in provider-keymgmt(7)), ML-KEM keys keys support the parameters listed below. These are gettable using EVP_PKEY_get_octet_string_param(3) or EVP_PKEY_get_params(3). They can be initialised via EVP_PKEY_fromdata(3), and are returned by EVP_PKEY_todata(3) given a suitable selection. Once a public or private key is configured, it can no longer be modified, nor can another key component be added.

"pub" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_PUB_KEY) <octet string>

The public key value.

This parameter is used when importing or exporting the public key value with the EVP_PKEY_fromdata() and EVP_PKEY_todata() functions. The key length and content is that of the FIPS 203 (Algorithm 16: ML-KEM.KeyGen_internal) ek public key for the given ML-KEM variant. Initial import aside, this parameter is otherwise only gettable.

"priv" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_PRIV_KEY) <octet string>

The private key value.

This parameter is used when importing or exporting the private key value with the EVP_PKEY_fromdata() and EVP_PKEY_todata() functions. The key length and content is that of the FIPS 203 (Algorithm 16: ML-KEM.KeyGen_internal) dk private key for the given ML-KEM variant. Initial import aside, this parameter is otherwise only gettable.

"encoded-pub-key" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_ENCODED_PUBLIC_KEY) <octet string>

Used for getting and setting the encoding of a public key. The key format is that of ek in FIPS 203, Algorithm 16: ML-KEM.KeyGen_internal. Updates of the public and private key components are only allowed on keys that are empty. Once a public or private key component is set, no further changes are allowed. This parameter is gettable and settable (once only).

Provider configuration parameters¶

See the description of the -provparam option in openssl(1) to learn how to set provider configuration parameters in the command line tools. See OSSL_PROVIDER_add_conf_parameter(3) to learn how to set provider configuration options programmatically.

"ml-kem.import_pct_type" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_ML_KEM_IMPORT_PCT_TYPE) <UTF8 string>

When an ML-KEM key is imported as an explict FIPS 203 dk decapsulation key, rather than a seed, a pairwise consistency test (PCT) is optionally performed. By default, or when this parameter is set explicitly to "random", the PCT is performed with a random entropy value for the encapsulation step. Setting the parameter to "fixed", still runs the test, but the encapsulation entropy is a fixed 32 byte value. Specifying any other value of the parameter, e.g. "none", skips the test.

"ml-kem.retain_seed" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_ML_KEM_RETAIN_SEED) <UTF8 string>

When set to a string representing a false boolean value (see OSSL_PROVIDER_conf_get_bool(3)), the seed will not be retained after key generation or key import from a seed value. If the resulting key is then written to a PKCS#8 object, it will contain only the FIPS 203 "dk" key.

"ml-kem.prefer_seed" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_ML_KEM_PREFER_SEED) <UTF8 string>

When decoding PKCS#8 objects that contain both a seed and the FIPS 203 "dk" private key, the seed is by default used to regenerate the key, and the companion key is ignored. When this configuration parameter is set to a string representing a false boolean value (see OSSL_PROVIDER_conf_get_bool(3)), the seed is ignored (neither used to regenerate the key, nor retained), and the companion key is used instead.

"ml-kem.input_formats" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_ML_KEM_INPUT_FORMATS) <UTF8 string>

List of enabled private key input formats when parsing PKCS#8 objects. List elements are separated by commas and/or spaces or tabs. The list of enabled formats can be specified in the configuration file, as seen in the "EXAMPLES" section below, or the via the -provparam command-line option (see also OSSL_PROVIDER_add_conf_parameter(3)).

Values specified on the command-line override any configuration file settings. By default all the supported formats are enabled. The supported formats are:

"ml-kem.output_formats" (OSSL_PKEY_PARAM_ML_KEM_OUTPUT_FORMATS) <UTF8 string>

Ordered list of enabled private key output formats when writing PKCS#8 files. List elements are separated by commas, spaces or tabs. The list of enabled formats can be specified in the configuration file, as seen in the "EXAMPLES" section below, or the via the -provparam command-line option.

This supports the same set of formats as described under "ml-kem.input_formats" above. The order in which elements are listed is important, the selected format will be the first one that is possible to output. If the key seed is known, the first listed format will be selected. If the key seed is not known, the first format that omits the seed will be selected. The default order is equivalent to "seed-priv" first and "priv-only" second, with both seed and key output when the seed is available, and just the key otherwise. If "seed-only" is listed first, then the seed will be output without the key when available, otherwise the output will have just the key. If "priv-only" is listed first, then just the key is output regardless of whether the seed is present. The legacy "oqskeypair", "bare-seed" and "bare-priv" formats can also be output, by listing those first.