DCS Labs · Technology · Crypto-Agility

Assess. Plan. Change. Re-scan.

Crypto-Agility is a capability of R-Series, in development. It is designed to take part of an estate from an authorised assessment to a ranked plan, through one approved change, and back through a second scan, with evidence left at every stage.

Capability of R-Series
Two offers Assessment · change pilot
Status In development
01 What it is

A capability of R-Series, not a product.

Crypto-Agility is the part of R-Series that turns an estate’s cryptography into a plan: a policy, a router over the R-Series engine’s primitives, a scheduler, a CBOM and a report. It holds no cryptography of its own; every signature comes from the R-Series engine.

Finding classical cryptography is only the start. The work is to say what was seen and what was not, rank what matters, change one thing under approval, and look again.

Why post-quantum algorithms matter at all, and which one does which job, is on Post-quantum cryptography.

PLACEMENT

Inside R-Series

No separate site and no separate product. Crypto-Agility is described here and under Migration on R-Series.

NO CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ITS OWN

The engine signs

Every cryptographic operation goes to the R-Series engine. The capability plans and records; it never signs on its own.

TWO OFFERS

Assessment, then change

An assessment and a bounded change pilot are two separate offers, each with its own gate.

02 The cycle

Assessment, plan, one governed change, re-scan.

Four steps, in order. The re-scan observes the same scope as the assessment, so the two can be compared.

01 · ASSESS

Assessment

Authorised discovery of TLS and SSH endpoints and their certificate chains, a coverage ledger that shows every gap, and a CycloneDX CBOM of what was observed.

02 · PLAN

Plan

Reviewed findings, a risk rationale for each, a migration target for each use, and migration waves set by owners and dependencies.

03 · CHANGE

Governed change

One approved change, end to end, under your own change approval, with a baseline, tests and a rollback or hold plan.

04 · RE-SCAN

Re-scan

The same scope observed again, the difference between the two scans, and the exceptions that remain.

03 Assessment scope

What an assessment covers, in exact words.

OFFER 1 · SCOPE

Offer 1 covers TLS and SSH observations on authorised endpoints and certificate chains visible through the scoped TLS work, with a coverage ledger and a CycloneDX CBOM of observed assets. Source, data-at-rest, key-management and vendor/SaaS channels are unavailable unless separately accepted. Schema validity does not establish completeness.

IN SCOPE

Observed, on authorised endpoints

  • TLS and SSH observations
  • Certificate chains visible through the scoped TLS work
  • A coverage ledger
  • A CycloneDX CBOM of observed assets
NOT IN SCOPE UNLESS SEPARATELY ACCEPTED

Other channels

  • Source code
  • Data at rest
  • Key management
  • Vendor and SaaS channels
04 Two offers

Two offers, kept apart.

The assessment never changes anything. A change is a separate offer that starts only after the assessment is accepted, under your own change approval.

OFFER 1 · ASSESSMENT

Discovery, CBOM, plan, expert-reviewed report

Authorised discovery of the scoped endpoints, a CycloneDX CBOM, a Crypto-Agility plan and an assessment report whose expert-review fields are completed and signed before delivery.

  • Observes; changes nothing
  • Every gap in coverage stated
  • Migration targets per asset and per use

In development

OFFER 2 · BOUNDED CHANGE PILOT

One approved change, end to end

One change, approved by you, carried out through governed execution with Connector OS, recorded as R-Series receipts, and shown before and after in one bundle that can be checked without DCS.

  • Starts only after the assessment is accepted
  • Baseline, operational and failure tests
  • A rollback or hold plan

In development

Neither offer is on sale today, and neither has a price. Both are in development and open only after their gates, listed under Where it stands.

PILOT PROGRAMME

The PQC migration pilot programme, step by step

The two offers in order, for one organisation’s own estate: what you do, what DCS does, what you receive and what evidence remains at each of the six steps.

Pilot programme by application; we confirm fit and scope before any work.

In development See the pilot programme

05 Six stages

From the first conversation to the second scan.

Each stage says what DCS delivers and what evidence it leaves behind. Nothing moves to the next stage on a promise.

Illustration · six stages01 / 06
01 · QUALIFY AND SCOPE

Agree what may be looked at.

DCS delivers. The sponsor, the assets and environments, the region, the supported stack, the authorisation, data handling and a statement of work. No secrets in a public enquiry.

Evidence it leaves. A scope file and a written authorisation. The scope’s digest is later signed into the scan receipt.

02 · PREPARE AND DISCOVER

Observe, and show every gap.

DCS delivers. An approved collector and access, and scoped observations. Unsupported, excluded, partial and failed coverage stays visible.

Evidence it leaves. A coverage ledger, and a scan receipt that binds the scope, the observations, the coverage and the CBOM digest.

03 · ASSESS AND PLAN

Findings, a CBOM and a plan in waves.

DCS delivers. Reviewed findings with their provenance, the CBOM, a risk rationale, and migration waves based on owners and dependencies.

Evidence it leaves. A CycloneDX CBOM and the assessment report. The report’s manifest is a signed receipt.

04 · BOUNDED CHANGE PILOT

One approved change, end to end.

DCS delivers. A separate offer, under your own change approval: a baseline, operational and failure tests, and a rollback or hold plan.

Evidence it leaves. Change receipts for the intent, the approval, the outcome and any rollback. The approval is bound to the exact plan, assets and operation.

05 · VERIFY AND ACCEPT

Scan again, then decide.

DCS delivers. A comparable re-scan, offline checking of the supported evidence, the residual exceptions, and your acceptance.

Evidence it leaves. The re-scan difference, an offline check of the scan, report and change receipts, and the list of exceptions still open.

06 · MONITOR LATER

Later, and only after its gates.

DCS delivers. Only after service capacity, response, freshness and retention gates. No recurring service is promised from a roadmap item.

Evidence it leaves. None yet. Monitoring is not offered today.

06 The assessment report

What the assessment report contains.

The report is the deliverable of the assessment. It is not deliverable until every expert-review field is completed and signed.

SCOPE

Observation time and scope

When the observations were made, and exactly what they covered.

GAPS

Unreachable and untested assets

Every asset the scan could not reach or did not test, named.

ALGORITHMS

Usage and parameters

Which algorithms each asset used, with their parameter sets and key sizes.

CONFIDENCE

Evidence confidence

How strong the evidence behind each finding is.

ASSUMPTIONS

Assumptions and exceptions

What the assessment assumed, and what it set aside.

RULES

Rule versions

The version of every rule a score or target came from.

TARGETS

Per-use migration targets

A target for each asset and each use, never one suite for everything.

PLAN

The plan and the re-scan plan

The waves, and how the same scope will be observed again afterwards.

No sample assessment is shown here. A sample is published only when an accepted report template supports what it shows.

07 Unknowns

Unknown is a finding, not a pass.

AUTHORISATION

Missing policy means deny

When the policy or a fact it needs is missing or unknown, the authorisation answer is deny.

policy missing→DENY

ASSESSMENT

Missing facts mean unknown

When an inventory is unknown or incomplete, the assessment says UNKNOWN or INSUFFICIENT, never ok.

inventory incomplete→UNKNOWN · INSUFFICIENT

The rebuild, in development, rests on four foundations.

TYPED REFUSAL

A refusal is never a verdict

Every refusal carries a stable code. Nothing that refuses returns allow, ok or valid.

STATUS WORDS

One closed vocabulary

Status words come from one fixed list. Labels the evidence cannot back are gone.

ONE REGISTRY

One profile registry

Routing, inventory and reporting read the same tables. An unknown profile or algorithm is refused, never defaulted.

CBOM

Written CBOM conventions

The CBOM follows written conventions. Coverage gaps get their own entries, and none can read as safe.

What is being fixed. An earlier internal version of this package read a missing policy as allow and an empty or unrecognised inventory as fine, and its CBOM did not validate against CycloneDX 1.6. A code review by someone who did not build it found these. The rebuild, in development, reverses them.

08 Targets and evidence

Your targets, per use. Our signatures, separate.

A migration target describes your system. The receipt profile describes how DCS signs the evidence about it. One never sets the other.

YOUR ESTATE · PER ASSET, PER USE

Migration targets

The risk model gives each asset a target crypto profile for each use it serves. A target is never expressed as a receipt suite.

  • Key agreement
  • Authentication
  • Storage wrapping
  • Backup
  • Artifact signing
DCS EVIDENCE · RECEIPT PROFILE

How DCS signs its own evidence

Standard profile: Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65, both signatures required. A higher profile with ML-DSA-87 is in development.

The receipt suite follows the evidence policy, never a migration target.

09 Re-scan

The same endpoints, observed again.

A re-scan is comparable only when the scope and the probes match. Where coverage differs, the result says so instead of guessing.

Illustration · re-scan
SAME ASSET

Matched by identity

Two entries are the same asset only when their names match exactly. Order, location and probe ids never decide it.

WORDS

Not observed is not removed

An entry missing from the later scan is “not observed in the later run”, never removed, fixed or migrated. An added one is “newly observed”.

COVERAGE

Different coverage, no verdict

If an asset was scanned on one side and a gap on the other, its entries are reported as incomparable.

A CBOM difference alone is never migration evidence. It shows that two inventories differ, not that a change happened, was authorised or is complete. The change itself is evidenced by its own signed receipts. Migration evidence on R-Series

10 Evidence

Evidence you can check without us.

Each record below is part of the design, in development.

SCAN RECEIPT

The scan itself is evidence

A signed record of the scope digest, the observations, the coverage, the CBOM digest and stable component identities, so two scans of one estate compare component to component.

REPORT RECEIPT

The report is bound

The assessment report’s manifest is a receipt from the R-Series engine. The report content is designed to regenerate byte for byte from the same inputs.

CHANGE RECEIPTS

The change is on the record

Intent, approval, outcome and rollback are each a receipt. The approval names the plan, the assets, the operation, the suite, an expiry and a nonce.

OFFLINE CHECK

Checked without DCS

The before and after evidence is bundled so that a second process can check it with only the public verifier.

11 Limits

What an assessment never claims.

None of the things on the left establishes any of the things on the right.

WHAT IT MAY SHOW
  • A schema-valid CBOM
  • A valid receipt
  • Two scanners that agree
  • One post-quantum primitive found
WHAT THAT DOES NOT ESTABLISH
  • Complete coverage
  • Migration completion
  • Regulatory compliance
  • FIPS validation
  • Defence approval
  • Long-term validity

Support for an algorithm is not a product claim. An assessment is not a certification, and DCS software is not a FIPS 140-3 validated cryptographic module.

12 Where it stands

In development, with the gates still ahead.

Each offer opens only when every gate on its rail has passed. None has passed yet.

OFFER 1 · ASSESSMENT

Before the first assessment

  1. Discovery measured against a planted lab truth
  2. Risk rules kept as versioned, sourced data
  3. Scan and report receipts checked offline
  4. Expert review fields signed before delivery
  5. Authorisation and handling scope agreed
  6. An independent reviewer
  7. A go decision
OFFER 2 · CHANGE PILOT

Before the first change pilot

  1. The assessment accepted
  2. Denied, failed, stopped, replayed and uncertain outcomes evidenced
  3. The migration control plane reviewed before use
  4. The end-to-end flow run on a lab and reviewed independently
  5. Recovery and rollback shown
  6. A customer-approved scope
  7. A go decision
LATER · MONITORING

Before any monitoring

  1. Service ownership and escalation
  2. Failed scans and missed schedules handled
  3. Freshness and exception expiry
  4. Measured capacity and cost
  5. Access, retention and operational tests

Status as of 31 October 2026: In development. The assessment engine is built and is in its final independent review round. Receipt V2 revision 7 was issued on 30 October 2026. Evidence Contract v1 was signed with conditions by the programme’s cryptography lead on 30 October 2026. Every statement on this page is drawn from the claim register of that date.

In development The migration programme on R-Series

13 Questions

What people ask us.

Is Crypto-Agility a product we can buy?

No. It is a capability of R-Series, in development. Two offers are being prepared on it, an assessment and a bounded change pilot. Neither is on sale yet; each opens only after its own gate.

Does ML-DSA encrypt our data?

No. ML-DSA signs; it does not encrypt data. Keeping data secret in transit or at rest needs key establishment, such as ML-KEM, chosen separately. See Post-quantum cryptography.

Is migrating your receipts the same as migrating our TLS?

No. They are separate things. Receipt migration is about how DCS signs the evidence it produces. Transport and storage migration is about your own systems: your TLS, your SSH and your stored data.

What does an assessment cover?

TLS and SSH observations on authorised endpoints, and the certificate chains visible through that TLS work, with a coverage ledger and a CBOM. Source code, data at rest, key management and vendor or SaaS channels are out unless separately accepted.

What if the scan cannot reach something?

It is recorded, not skipped. Unreachable, refused, excluded, partial and failed coverage stays visible, and no figure for an asset with gaps is called complete. Not seen is not absent.

Will anything change during the assessment?

No. The assessment observes and plans. A change happens only in the separate change pilot, under your own change approval, with a baseline, tests and a rollback or hold plan.

Can we see a sample assessment first?

Not yet. A sample is published only when an accepted report template supports what it shows.

Does a re-scan prove the migration is complete?

No. A re-scan shows how two comparable scans differ. A CBOM difference alone is never migration evidence: the change has its own receipts, and whatever is still open is listed as an exception.

Is ongoing monitoring included?

No. Monitoring comes later, only after its own service gates. Nothing here promises a recurring service.

Start with what you can see.

An authorised look at one part of your estate, every gap stated, and a plan you can check. Tell us what you would scope first.