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Freedom251 › Blog › crypto agility

How to Inventory Your Organization’s Cryptography for a Post-Quantum Migration

By Freedom251 Team · · 15 min read

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Build a living, evidence-backed cryptographic inventory before choosing post-quantum replacements. Identify every algorithm, protocol, certificate, key, library, device, service, supplier, and data flow; record its owner, purpose, dependencies, exposure, and protection lifetime; then rank the findings by quantum risk and migration difficulty. The result is a defensible backlog for staged migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), aligned with NIST standards and tested for interoperability.

What a cryptographic inventory is—and what it is not

NIST defines a cryptographic inventory as a descriptive record of the cryptography used across an organization’s systems, applications, services, devices, and data flows. It is broader than a certificate list and more useful than a software bill of materials that merely shows installed packages.

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A useful inventory connects a cryptographic use to the business asset and trust decision it protects. For example, a record should show that a customer-facing API uses a particular TLS configuration, which certificate and trust chain it presents, where its private key is held, which service owns it, what data crosses the connection, and what would fail if the certificate or key became unusable.

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The inventory should cover both public-key and symmetric cryptography, hashing, signatures, key establishment, certificate validation, and protocol settings. It should include active, dormant, inherited, and test uses when they could affect a migration, while clearly marking their status. It must not contain secret key material; it should contain references to approved key stores or HSM objects instead.

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Why inventory comes before PQC design

Quantum computers capable of breaking today’s widely deployed public-key systems are not available as an operational threat, but migration takes years. Hardware refresh cycles, certificate lifetimes, embedded firmware, external suppliers, and protocol interoperability all create lead time. Sensitive data with a long confidentiality requirement may also face “harvest now, decrypt later” exposure: an adversary can capture encrypted traffic today and attempt decryption when a capable quantum computer exists.

Inventory work identifies where quantum-vulnerable public-key algorithms are used in hardware, software, and services, which systems depend on them, and which replacements could disrupt operations. Without that map, a program tends to replace visible web certificates while missing code-signing keys, machine-to-machine authentication, backup encryption, secure-boot trust anchors, or supplier-controlled components.

NIST published FIPS 203, FIPS 204, and FIPS 205 on August 13, 2024. These standards provide a target context for implementation planning. NIST’s current transition direction is that quantum-vulnerable algorithms will be deprecated and ultimately removed from its standards by 2035, with high-risk systems moving earlier. The dates establish urgency, not a single cutover date: each organization still has to test interoperability, performance, hardware support, and operational procedures.

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Set boundaries, ownership, and evidence rules

Define what is in scope

Write a scope statement that names business units, subsidiaries, production and nonproduction environments, data classes, geographic regions, cloud tenants, managed services, laboratories, and suppliers. Include systems that exchange data with the organization even when the organization does not administer the endpoint. Record explicit exclusions and the reason for each; an unexamined exclusion is a blind spot, not a risk decision.

Assign accountability at two levels

An accountable program owner should set policy, resolve cross-business conflicts, and accept residual risk. Every inventory record also needs an asset owner who can confirm how a cryptographic use works and a technical contact who can change it. Security, infrastructure, application, PKI, procurement, legal, records-management, and business-continuity teams should have defined responsibilities rather than being invited only when a migration project starts.

Define evidence and freshness rules

Decide which evidence is acceptable: source-code findings, configuration snapshots, packet metadata, certificate-authority logs, HSM records, deployment manifests, supplier attestations, or owner confirmation. Store the collection timestamp, method, source system, reviewer, confidence, and expiry date for each finding. Set a stale-record threshold appropriate to the asset; an internet-facing certificate record may need a shorter review interval than an isolated laboratory device.

Design the inventory record

Use stable identifiers so that a finding from a code repository, a cloud account, and a CMDB record can be joined without creating three assets. A relational database, graph model, or governed spreadsheet can work initially, provided each item has an owner, evidence, and lifecycle state. The following fields form a practical minimum.

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Record area Capture Why it matters
Asset identity Application, service, device, workload, repository, environment, business owner, technical owner, supplier, and criticality Provides accountability and lets you group related uses into a migration work item.
Cryptographic use Algorithm, key size or parameter set, mode, protocol, library or provider, implementation version, and role: encryption, signing, hashing, key establishment, or certificate validation Distinguishes an actually negotiated algorithm from a package that is merely installed.
Key metadata Key type, owner, location or HSM reference, generation and rotation policy, status, and authorized consumers Shows who can change the key and what operational dependencies a replacement has.
Certificate and trust data Subject, issuer, chain, expiration, renewal method, trust store, pinning or validation rules, and lifecycle status Reveals renewal deadlines, trust anchors, and client compatibility constraints.
Data and decisions Data classification, confidentiality lifetime, integrity or signature lifetime, authentication decision, and failure impact Connects technical exposure to the consequence of compromise or outage.
Dependencies Upstream and downstream systems, external parties, protocols, hardware, firmware, deployment pipeline, and supplier-controlled components Identifies sequencing, interoperability, and contractual blockers.
Evidence and status Discovery method, source timestamp, confidence, reviewer, exception, remediation owner, target PQC state, test status, and milestone Makes the record auditable and usable as a migration backlog.

Keep secret keys, recovery codes, and plaintext credentials out of the inventory. A reference such as “HSM cluster B, object identifier 7821” is useful; copying the private key into a database creates a new, avoidable compromise target.

A discovery workflow that finds more than certificates

1. Build an initial asset map

Join the configuration-management database, cloud and SaaS inventories, application catalog, endpoint and network maps, PKI and certificate stores, HSM records, code repositories, deployment manifests, and supplier register. Normalize identifiers before scanning so that one service does not appear as separate assets under a hostname, container name, and business application name.

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Use the asset map to identify high-value data stores, externally exposed services, critical authentication paths, software and firmware signing systems, and long-lived archives. These become the first validation targets, not the only targets.

2. Inspect source code and configuration

Search source repositories, build scripts, infrastructure-as-code, container images, operating-system policies, application settings, and vendor configuration for algorithm names, key sizes, protocol versions, certificate paths, trust anchors, provider names, and hard-coded parameters. Review calls to cryptographic libraries rather than counting package names: a library can be present but unused, or a product can invoke cryptography through a platform provider that is not obvious in the application code.

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Record the exact location of each finding, the branch or release in which it appears, and whether it is compiled into production. Flag hard-coded certificates, pinned public keys, custom serialization, and assumptions about signature or certificate size because these often make a later algorithm change disruptive.

3. Observe runtime and network behavior

Use approved telemetry, protocol logs, service-mesh data, and controlled tests to identify TLS, SSH, VPN, API, database, messaging, and remote-administration sessions. Capture negotiated protocol and cipher information where available, endpoint identities, certificate chains, and whether a connection is inbound, outbound, or mutual-authenticated. Runtime evidence confirms whether a configured option is active and can reveal legacy systems that never appear in current documentation.

For signing and verification, observe package publication, update delivery, CI/CD approvals, document signing, email encryption, and application-level signatures. A network scan alone will not find offline signing keys or signatures embedded in firmware and archives.

4. Examine PKI, key management, and HSM operations

Inventory certificate authorities, registration and issuance systems, renewal automation, revocation services, trust stores, pinning rules, key-management services, and HSM partitions. Link each certificate to its private-key reference, issuing chain, consumers, renewal owner, and replacement procedure. Include keys used for token signing, database encryption, backup protection, secrets wrapping, secure boot, and code or firmware signing.

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Review generation, escrow, rotation, revocation, destruction, and recovery procedures. A certificate may be easy to replace while its key is embedded in a device image, replicated to a supplier, or referenced by dozens of clients. Those relationships determine migration effort.

5. Inspect endpoints, devices, firmware, and archives

Cover laptops, servers, network appliances, industrial equipment, mobile devices, smart devices, boot firmware, update mechanisms, and manufacturing systems. Identify cryptography in secure-boot chains, device identity, telemetry, remote maintenance, and signed updates. Ask how long each device remains in service and whether firmware can be updated in the field.

For backups and archives, record the encryption algorithm, key custody, retention period, restore process, and whether data will remain sensitive after the planned retention date. Long-lived records deserve early attention even when their current access path is private.

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6. Gather cloud and supplier evidence

Request algorithm, protocol, certificate, key-management, and upgrade-dependency information from cloud providers, SaaS operators, managed-service providers, hardware vendors, and software suppliers. Ask which components are configurable, which are inherited from the provider, when PQC support is expected, how hybrid operation will work, and what evidence will be supplied for testing.

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Do not treat a supplier statement as proof that your deployment is configured that way. Tie the statement to a product version, tenant setting, contract scope, and observed behavior, and record who is responsible for action if the supplier changes an underlying implementation.

7. Run targeted functional tests

NIST SP 1800-38B describes a multifaceted discovery process, functional test plan, use-case scenario, threat coverage, and architecture integrating contributed discovery tools. Use the same principle locally: test representative authentication, encryption, signing, certificate renewal, backup restore, software update, and failover paths. A finding is more valuable when you know how to reproduce it and what breaks when its algorithm or certificate changes.

Normalize findings and have owners validate them

Adopt a controlled vocabulary for algorithms, protocols, key roles, environments, lifecycle states, and confidence levels. Store aliases and product-specific names as searchable attributes, but map them to one canonical term for reporting. Deduplicate certificate records by key and serial number, and deduplicate services by an approved asset identifier.

Require the application or infrastructure owner to classify each finding as active, dormant, inherited, test-only, or false positive. “Library present” should not be reported as “algorithm in use” until evidence shows a code path, configuration, or observed negotiation. Conversely, an owner’s statement that a system is “not using encryption” should be challenged when network or certificate evidence shows otherwise.

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Use confidence levels that explain the evidence: high confidence for a current runtime observation or authoritative HSM record, medium for a configuration that has not been exercised, and low for an unverified supplier document or static match. Retain the original evidence so a reviewer can reproduce the decision after a release changes.

Prioritize systems for PQC migration

Prioritization should combine quantum vulnerability with business and operational risk. A public-key use is urgent when it protects data that must remain secret for many years, authenticates a critical service, signs software or firmware, anchors organizational trust, or is exposed to the internet. Increase urgency when a certificate or key is near expiration, a library is unsupported, a supplier controls the upgrade, or many downstream systems depend on the use.

Priority dimension Questions to answer Typical effect on order
Quantum exposure Is the use a quantum-vulnerable public-key operation, and does it provide confidentiality, authentication, signature validity, or trust anchoring? Public-key confidentiality and signing uses usually precede symmetric-only uses.
Protection lifetime How long must the data remain confidential, or how long must a signature remain trusted? Long-lived secrets, archives, and firmware signatures move earlier.
Business criticality What revenue, safety, legal, or continuity impact follows compromise or outage? Critical authentication and recovery paths receive dedicated planning.
Exposure Is the asset internet-facing, reachable by partners, or accessible through an untrusted network? Externally reachable services get earlier assessment and testing.
Lifecycle deadline When do certificates, keys, hardware, contracts, or support versions expire? Align migration with unavoidable refreshes where possible.
Replacement complexity Are there embedded devices, rigid protocols, large client populations, bandwidth limits, or supplier dependencies? Start complex pilots early even if the immediate exposure is moderate.

Use tiers that lead to action rather than a decorative score. A first tier can contain high-impact, externally exposed, long-lived, or trust-anchoring uses; a second tier can contain important internal services with manageable dependencies; a third tier can contain low-criticality or short-lived uses. Record the rationale and owner for every tier so a later reviewer can change the priority when evidence changes.

Map the current state to a target PQC state

For each inventory record, specify the approved replacement or transition pattern, not just a general goal to “be quantum safe.” Map the current algorithm and protocol role to an implementation profile based on the organization’s standards and the applicable NIST standards. Record whether the transition will be direct, hybrid, staged, or dependent on a supplier release.

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Plan for interoperability

Hybrid or staged operation may be needed while clients, servers, gateways, and suppliers update at different speeds. Test negotiation, certificate issuance and validation, signature verification, fallback behavior, logging, and policy enforcement. Do not assume that two products supporting the same standard will interoperate without testing their encoding, parameter choices, certificate profiles, and maximum message sizes.

Capture engineering constraints

For every candidate transition, measure or document expected effects on latency, bandwidth, certificate and key size, CPU and memory use, HSM capacity, storage, protocol framing, and device update size. These constraints are especially important for constrained devices, high-volume APIs, satellite or intermittent links, and systems with fixed network appliances.

Define acceptance and rollback criteria

A target state should include test cases, security and performance thresholds, observability requirements, rollback triggers, and evidence to retain. Test certificate renewal, key rotation, disaster recovery, client incompatibility, revocation, and restore—not only the nominal handshake. Keep the current working configuration available until the new path has passed its change and recovery gates.

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Turn inventory records into a migration roadmap

Group related findings into migration epics that one team can deliver and test. Each epic should have a named owner, affected assets, current cryptographic uses, target state, prerequisites, dependencies, test environments, change window, rollback plan, and evidence requirements.

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  1. Prepare a representative pilot. Select a service with meaningful exposure and a manageable dependency set. Include at least one client, monitoring path, certificate process, and recovery procedure.
  2. Resolve blockers. Upgrade unsupported libraries, request supplier roadmaps, update protocol and certificate tooling, and obtain hardware or HSM capacity before the production change.
  3. Test in an isolated environment. Exercise normal traffic, invalid credentials, expired certificates, rotation, revocation, failover, backup restore, and mixed-version clients.
  4. Run a controlled production transition. Use a canary, staged rollout, or parallel endpoint where the protocol permits it. Monitor authentication failures, latency, message sizes, resource consumption, and certificate errors.
  5. Close the loop. Attach test results and change records to the inventory, update the target state and lifecycle dates, remove retired keys and certificates according to policy, and create follow-up work for dependent systems.

Maintain a dependency graph so a shared trust anchor, signing service, gateway, or client library is migrated once and its consumers are scheduled in the right order. A roadmap that lists applications without dependencies will produce repeated outages and duplicate work.

Choose discovery methods by coverage, not by scan count

Approach Strong evidence Common gaps to compensate for Useful integrations
Static code and configuration analysis Algorithm calls, provider settings, certificate paths, trust anchors, hard-coded parameters, and build-time dependencies Cannot prove a code path is active; may miss runtime or supplier-controlled behavior Source control, build pipelines, software and cryptography bills of materials, ticketing
Runtime and network observation Negotiated TLS, SSH, VPN, API, service-mesh, and signing behavior Misses offline signing, dormant paths, encrypted archives, and devices that are not observed Network telemetry, SIEM, service management, change records
PKI, KMS, and HSM inspection Certificate chains, key references, issuance, rotation, trust stores, and signing operations May not reveal application dependencies or unmanaged embedded keys CMDB, certificate management, key-management audit logs, GRC
Endpoint, device, and firmware review Secure boot, update signing, device identity, firmware libraries, and long-lived equipment Physical access, proprietary formats, and supplier constraints can limit collection Asset management, firmware repositories, vulnerability and lifecycle systems
Supplier evidence and attestations Inherited cryptography, product versions, upgrade paths, and contractual responsibilities Statements may be generic, outdated, or unrelated to your tenant configuration Procurement records, contracts, service catalogs, risk registers

The strongest program correlates these methods. A single scanner export cannot provide the coverage, provenance, owner validation, continuous monitoring, dependency modeling, and migration outputs required for a living inventory.

Common blind spots and how to correct them

Counting software packages instead of cryptographic uses

A package list does not tell you which algorithms are negotiated, which keys are active, or which protocol role is involved. Link package evidence to code paths, configuration, and runtime observations.

Stopping at web certificates

Web PKI is visible, but code signing, firmware updates, secure boot, email encryption, VPN authentication, database connections, backups, and internal service meshes can carry greater migration risk. Make each trust and signing function a discovery category.

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Ignoring inherited and outsourced cryptography

Cloud services, managed gateways, appliances, libraries, and suppliers may control the implementation. Record the inherited use, contractual owner, product version, upgrade dependency, and evidence date instead of marking it “not applicable.”

Missing nonproduction and disaster-recovery paths

Test environments, build pipelines, standby regions, offline backups, and recovery images often contain separate certificates or signing keys. Include them in the same asset map and test their restoration and rotation behavior.

Failing to plan for size and protocol limits

Changing algorithms can alter key, certificate, signature, and handshake sizes. Systems with fixed buffers, constrained links, legacy parsers, or strict message limits need an early compatibility test and a rollback plan.

Letting the inventory become stale

Cryptographic use changes with every release, certificate renewal, supplier update, and infrastructure migration. Trigger updates from deployment pipelines, certificate issuance, key rotation, major configuration changes, and asset retirement. Reconcile automated findings with owner review rather than assuming a quarterly export remains accurate.

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Operate the inventory as a risk-management system

Set a recurring review cadence based on risk. Continuously or near-continuously monitor externally exposed services, certificate and key events, deployment changes, and signing systems. Review critical internal systems at defined intervals and review low-risk records when their lifecycle or ownership changes.

Track operational measures that show whether the program is becoming more useful:

  • Percentage of in-scope assets with a named business and technical owner.
  • Percentage of records with current evidence and a confidence rating.
  • Number of high-priority public-key uses with an approved target state and migration owner.
  • Number of certificates, keys, trust anchors, and signing functions with known rotation or replacement procedures.
  • Age of unresolved supplier dependencies and unsupported cryptographic libraries.
  • Migration epics that have passed interoperability, recovery, and rollback tests.

Use access controls and data-residency rules appropriate to the inventory. Even without secret keys, the record can reveal trust relationships, sensitive services, and weaknesses. Log changes, separate read and write privileges, and retain evidence according to the organization’s security and records policies.

Starter checklist for the first 90 days

  1. Name the accountable program owner and publish scope, definitions, evidence rules, and risk tiers.
  2. Join asset, cloud, application, endpoint, network, PKI, HSM, repository, deployment, and supplier data under stable identifiers.
  3. Run static discovery on representative repositories and configurations, then validate findings with owners.
  4. Collect runtime and network evidence for critical external services, remote administration, APIs, VPNs, and service-to-service authentication.
  5. Inventory certificate authorities, trust stores, key-management services, HSM objects, signing systems, secure-boot chains, firmware, backups, and archives.
  6. Request product-version-specific cryptographic and upgrade evidence from suppliers and managed-service providers.
  7. Classify records by quantum exposure, data and signature lifetime, business criticality, exposure, deadlines, and replacement complexity.
  8. Select a representative pilot, define the target state using approved NIST-aligned profiles, and write test and rollback criteria.
  9. Convert validated high-priority findings into migration epics with owners, dependencies, milestones, and evidence requirements.
  10. Schedule automated drift detection and owner review so the inventory remains current after deployments, renewals, rotations, and acquisitions.

The outcome to aim for

A successful inventory lets an executive answer which systems use quantum-vulnerable public-key cryptography, what data or trust decision each use protects, who can change it, which supplier or hardware dependency controls the schedule, and what will be tested before migration. It also gives engineering teams a reproducible path from discovery to replacement, including interoperability, performance, certificate, key-management, and recovery checks.

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NIST’s 2024 PQC standards and its direction toward removing quantum-vulnerable algorithms from standards by 2035 provide the destination context. The inventory supplies the route: evidence-backed records, validated dependencies, risk-ranked work, and a staged roadmap that can be updated as implementations and standards evolve.

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