Cryptography that
survives the quantum leap

Qertum is the open-source, crypto-agile Certificate Authority for the post-quantum era. Issue ML-DSA, SLH-DSA and hybrid X.509 certificates — with ACME automation, OCSP, CRLs and HSM-backed keys. No vendor lock-in.

Deploy your CA Star on GitHub

Apache-2.0 licensed / Self-hostable / Crypto-agile core

qertum — bash

# Spin up a post-quantum root CA in seconds
$ qertum init --profile root --algorithm ml-dsa-87

  ✓ Generated ML-DSA-87 root key  (HSM slot 0)
  ✓ Self-signed root certificate  valid 20y
  ✓ OCSP responder + CRL distribution online

$ qertum issue --cn api.qertum.com --hybrid ml-dsa-65+ecdsa-p256

  ✓ Hybrid leaf certificate issued  → ./api.pem

The quantum threat

“Harvest now,
decrypt later”
isn't hypothetical.

Adversaries are recording encrypted data today to decrypt it the moment a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer arrives. Every certificate signed with RSA or ECC has an expiry date dictated by quantum progress — not by your policy.

Qertum lets you migrate on your own timeline: classical, hybrid and pure post-quantum certificates from a single crypto-agile authority, so your chain of trust outlives the cryptography it started with.

Explore capabilities

2025

NIST deadline to deprecate classical RSA/ECC public-key cryptography

Today

Encrypted traffic is already being harvested for future decryption

Migration coverage — classical, hybrid and pure post-quantum, side by side

Capabilities

A complete CA, ready for what's next

Everything you expect from a production certificate authority — plus the post-quantum primitives standardized by NIST.

Crypto-agile at the core

Swap, combine and roll signature algorithms without re-architecting your PKI. Algorithm choices are policy, not concrete — so your chain of trust outlives the cryptography it started with.

Hybrid & composite certificates

X.509 certificates that carry both a classical and a post-quantum signature, so they validate everywhere through the transition.

The full CA lifecycle

Root and intermediate hierarchies, renewal, revocation, OCSP responders and CRL distribution — the complete chain of trust.

ACME automation

RFC 8555 compliant — a drop-in for certbot, lego, cert-manager and Caddy. Automate post-quantum issuance and renewal.

Hardware-backed keys

Keep private keys in hardware. Native PKCS#11, KMS and YubiHSM backends keep your root offline and tamper-resistant.

API, CLI & web console

One binary with a REST/gRPC API, a scriptable CLI and an audit-friendly admin console. Bare metal, Docker or Kubernetes.

Standards-based cryptography

Built on the NIST PQC standards

No experimental ciphers. Qertum ships the finalized FIPS algorithms — and the hybrid modes that bridge you there safely.

ML-DSA

CRYSTALS-Dilithium

Digital signature

The default for certificate signing. Lattice-based, fast verification. Security levels 44 / 65 / 87.

Standard FIPS 204

SLH-DSA

SPHINCS+

Digital signature

Hash-based, stateless and conservative. Ideal for long-lived roots and firmware signing.

Standard FIPS 205

ML-KEM

CRYSTALS-Kyber

Key encapsulation

For TLS key exchange and key establishment in issued credentials. Levels 512 / 768 / 1024.

Standard FIPS 203

Hybrid

Composite & Catalyst

Classical + PQC

ML-DSA paired with ECDSA or Ed25519 in one certificate — secure if either algorithm holds.

Standard IETF draft

Quickstart

From zero to a post-quantum CA in minutes

Self-hosted, scriptable, and reproducible. Here's the whole path.

Install

A single static binary — or pull the container. No runtime dependencies.

Initialize your root

Generate a post-quantum or hybrid root in an HSM or software keystore.

Issue & automate

Hand out certs by CLI, REST, or wire up ACME for hands-off renewal.

# Install
$ brew install qertum/tap/qertum

# Stand up a hybrid root CA
$ qertum init --profile root \
    --algorithm ml-dsa-65+ecdsa-p256

# Issue your first leaf certificate
$ qertum issue --cn svc.qertum.com \
    --san svc.qertum.com,10.0.0.4 \
    --out svc.pem

# Run the CA server with persistent state
$ docker run -d \
    -p 8443:8443 \
    -v qertum-data:/var/lib/qertum \
    ghcr.io/qertum/qertum:1.0

# Enable the ACME endpoint
$ qertum acme enable --port 8443

# Install the latest release
$ curl -fsSL https://get.qertum.dev | sh

# Verify the signed release artifact
$ qertum verify --self
  ✓ SLH-DSA signature valid

Interoperable

Speaks the standards your stack already trusts

A drop-in authority — the certificates, protocols and key stores you use today, with post-quantum strength underneath.

FIPS 203 ML-KEM FIPS 204 ML-DSA FIPS 205 SLH-DSA RFC 5280 X.509 PKI RFC 8555 ACME RFC 6960 OCSP PKCS#11 HSM keys CA/B Forum Baseline

Open source & community-driven

Own your chain
of trust. Forever.

Apache-2.0 licensed, auditable end to end, and free to self-host. Join the contributors hardening the public-key infrastructure of the post-quantum internet.

Get started View source

Cryptography that survives the quantum leap

“Harvest now,decrypt later”isn't hypothetical.