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Cloudflare One is the first SASE offering modern post-quantum encryption across the full platform (opens in new tab)

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Cloudflare says Cloudflare One is now the first SASE platform to provide standards-compliant post-quantum hybrid ML-KEM encryption across Secure Web Gateway, Zero Trust, and WAN connectivity. The update extends protection to Cloudflare IPsec and Cloudflare One Appliance, addressing both current “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks and future quantum threats. The appliance support is generally available in version 2026.2.0, while Cloudflare IPsec is in closed beta.

Post-Quantum Cryptography Is an Immediate Concern

  • NIST has set 2030 as the target for phasing out RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography in favor of post-quantum algorithms.
  • Cryptographic migrations can take decades, as demonstrated by vulnerabilities involving deprecated algorithms such as MD5.
  • Organizations face “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, in which encrypted traffic is collected today for future decryption.
  • Cloudflare argues that built-in crypto agility makes it easier for enterprises to upgrade algorithms without redesigning remote-access and WAN infrastructure.

Two Required Cryptographic Migrations

  • Key establishment: ML-KEM is becoming the standard post-quantum mechanism for establishing shared encryption keys.
    • Cloudflare uses hybrid ML-KEM, combining ML-KEM with classical ECDHE.
    • This approach protects against harvested traffic, requires no specialized hardware like quantum key distribution, and has limited performance impact.
    • More than 60% of human-generated TLS traffic reaching Cloudflare is already protected by hybrid ML-KEM.
  • Digital signatures: Post-quantum signatures protect against server impersonation but are larger than current ECC signatures.
    • Their migration is considered less urgent because they primarily defend against active quantum adversaries, which do not yet exist.
    • Cloudflare’s current IPsec work therefore focuses on post-quantum key establishment rather than signatures.

Post-Quantum Protection for Cloudflare IPsec

  • Cloudflare upgraded its IPsec products to support hybrid ML-KEM within IKEv2.
  • Cloudflare IPsec creates encrypted tunnels from customer networks to Cloudflare’s global network.
  • IP Anycast routes tunnels to the nearest data center and automatically redirects traffic if a location becomes unavailable.
  • The service supports site-to-site WAN connectivity as well as outbound Internet connections.
  • Cloudflare One Appliance, which establishes Cloudflare IPsec connections, supports the upgrade starting with version 2026.2.0.
  • The Cloudflare IPsec upgrade remains in closed beta.

Limitations of Earlier IPsec Approaches

  • IPsec has historically evolved differently from TLS because it is commonly used between devices from the same vendor, making interoperability less central.
  • RFC 8784 proposed combining long-lived pre-shared keys with Diffie-Hellman exchange.
  • While this can help protect against harvest-now-decrypt-later attacks, it does not provide forward secrecy against quantum attackers.
  • Quantum key distribution is also impractical for many enterprise environments because it requires specialized physical connectivity.

Cloudflare’s recommendation is to begin post-quantum migration now, starting with hybrid ML-KEM for key establishment across Internet access, Zero Trust, and WAN connections.