THE STATE OF RUST CRYPTOGRAPHY IN 2026

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

Rust's cryptography ecosystem has matured significantly, with aws-lc-rs and ring now serving as the official crypto providers for rustls. At least two libraries, aws-lc-rs and boring, offer FIPS 140-3 certification alongside post-quantum KEM support via Kyber algorithms. The ecosystem divides between pure-Rust implementations, such as RustCrypto, dalek-cryptography, and graviola, which offer better auditability and cross-compilation, and C library wrappers that provide assembly-optimized performance. This is a relevant trade-off because 37.2 percent of cryptographic library vulnerabilities stem from memory safety issues. For teams requiring FIPS compliance and performance, aws-lc-rs is recommended. For WebAssembly targets and easier cross-compilation, RustCrypto crates remain the preferred choice.