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---
title: Post-quantum authentication to origins is now supported
description: Cloudflare has added post-quantum (PQ) authentication support to its Authenticated Origin Pulls (AOP) and Custom Origin Trust Store (COTS) products, using...
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og:description: Cloudflare has added post-quantum (PQ) authentication support to its Authenticated Origin Pulls (AOP) and Custom Origin Trust Store (COTS) products, using...
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# Post-quantum authentication to origins is now supported

**[Cloudflare](https://daily.dev/sources/cloudflare)** · 13 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Cloudflare has added post-quantum (PQ) authentication support to its Authenticated Origin Pulls (AOP) and Custom Origin Trust Store (COTS) products, using ML-DSA (Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm) signatures. This enables fully post-quantum secure mutual TLS connections between Cloudflare and customer origin servers. The post covers configuration steps using OpenSSL 3.5+, including generating ML-DSA certificate chains, uploading them via the Cloudflare API, and configuring NGINX. Engineering details include how Go's lack of native ML-DSA support required using Cloudflare's CIRCL library (until Go 1.27 ships in August 2026), and how updating BoringSSL after a four-year lag caused a brief incident due to stricter KeyUsage enforcement. The post also explains downgrade attack risks and how to avoid them, and situates this milestone within Cloudflare's broader roadmap targeting full post-quantum security by 2029.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://blog.cloudflare.com/post-quantum-authentication-to-origins>

## Questions this post answers

### How do I enable post-quantum authentication for Cloudflare's connection to my origin server?

Enable it through Cloudflare's Authenticated Origin Pulls (AOP) and Custom Origin Trust Store (COTS) products, which now support ML-DSA signatures under FIPS 204. Generate ML-DSA certificate chains with OpenSSL 3.5.0 or later using the seed-only key format, upload the origin CA to COTS and the client certificate to AOP via the Cloudflare API, then set SSL/TLS mode to Full (strict) and configure NGINX to present and verify the certificates.

_Teams rolling out post-quantum TLS to origins can track real configuration steps like this via daily.dev._

### Which ML-DSA parameter set does Cloudflare recommend for post-quantum origin authentication?

ML-DSA-44 is recommended for most applications since it is the most performant of the three FIPS 204 parameter sets (ML-DSA-44, ML-DSA-65, ML-DSA-87) while still attaining a comfortable NIST security category 2 strength. All three are supported by Cloudflare's Custom Origin Trust Store and Authenticated Origin Pulls products.

_Engineers weighing ML-DSA parameter tradeoffs can follow post-quantum cryptography guidance on daily.dev._

### Why did Cloudflare's BoringSSL update cause an outage in June 2026?

Cloudflare had delayed updating Pingora Origin's BoringSSL dependency for four years, maintaining an internal fork instead, until post-quantum authentication support landed in BoringSSL in April 2026 prompted the upgrade. A commit within those four years of changes enforced stricter KeyUsage rules in TLS certificates per RFC 5280, causing a small number of customers' technically non-compliant RSA certificates to be rejected, triggering an incident on June 10, 2026 that was rolled back and later patched to retain support for those certificates.

_Anyone managing long-deferred TLS library upgrades can learn from incidents like this via daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#quantum-computing](https://daily.dev/tags/quantum-computing), [#cloudflare](https://daily.dev/tags/cloudflare)

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