| Internet-Draft | PQC Evidence Records | September 2026 |
| Alhemeiri | Expires 10 March 2027 | [Page] |
This document describes an evidence-record format for the long-term, verifiable preservation of digitally-signed data across the migration to post-quantum cryptography. It builds on the Evidence Record Syntax (ERS) of RFC 4998 and adds an explicit algorithm-agility extension: a record is a chain of signed attestations in which each link re-witnesses the data under a fresh signature primitive and commits to the prior link, so that the authenticity of the data survives the cryptographic break of any single primitive. It specifies the canonical hashing that makes a record reproducibly verifiable across independent implementations, the authenticated temporal binding that places each link in time (an append-only transparency log à la RFC 6962, whose signed inclusion receipt is not-after evidence), and the verification procedure. A per-link beacon anchor records not-before evidence: from wire version 3 it is authenticated against the beacon's hash chain, with the beacon's classical pulse signature as defence in depth; the Security Considerations say which assumption each check rests on.¶
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