> Since ML-KEM is supported by the NSA, it should be assumed to have a NSA-known backdoor that they want to be used as much as possible
AES and RSA are also supported by the NSA, but that doesn’t mean they were backdoored.
AES and RSA are also supported by the NSA, but that doesn’t mean they were backdoored.
The standardization of an obviously weaker option than more established ones is difficult to explain with security reasons, so the default assumption should be that there are insecurity reasons.
I disagree that ML-KEM is "obviously weaker". In some ways, lattice-based cryptography has stronger hardness foundations than RSA and EC (specifically, average -> worst case reductions).
ML-KEM and EC are definitely complementary, and I would probably only deploy hybrids in the near future, but I don't begrudge others who wish to do pure ML-KEM.
I have no knowledge of whether Kyber at this point is vulnerable given whatever private cryptanalysis the NSA definitely has done on it, but if Kyber is adopted now, it will definitely be in use 2 decades from now, and it's hard to believe that it won't be vulnerable/broken then (even with only publicly available information).
Lots of algorithms were broken, but so what? Things like Rainbow and SIKE are not at all based on the hardness of solving lattice problems.
Can you elaborate on the standard of scrutiny that you believe AES and RSA (which were standardized at two very different maturation points in applied cryptography) met that hasn't been applied to the NIST PQ process?
The thing is these algorithms have been under discussion for quite some time. If you're not deeply into cryptography it might not appear this way, but these are essentially iterations on many earlier designs and ideas and have been built up cumulatively over time. Overall it doesn't seem there are any major concerns that anyone has identified.
But that's not what we're actually talking about. We're talking about whether creating an IETF RFC for people who want to use solely use ML-KEM is acceptable or not - and given the most famous organization proposing to do this is the US Federal Government it seems bizarre in the extreme to accuse them of backdooring what they actually intend to use for themselves. As I said, though, this does not preclude the rest of the industry having and using hybrid KEMs, which given what cloudflare, google etc are doing we likely will.