VORTEX-256

A new lattice KEM built on Rotational Module Learning With Errors
_{Same footprint as Kyber-512 · Entirely different mathematics · Standalone library
A Bajpai Labs project · postquantumlabs.in/library/vortex-pqc}

                              ╭──────────────────────────────────────╮
                              │                                      │
         ρ  ──▶  a₀ ──σ──▶  a₁ ──σ──▶  a₂ ──σ──▶  …               │
                              │         Frobenius orbit              │
                              │         of a single ring element     │
                              ╰──────────────────────────────────────╯
                                           │
                              bᵢ = aᵢ · s + eᵢ     (K correlated instances)
                                           │
                              pk  ·  ct  ·  32-byte shared secret

✦ At a glance

σ : f(x) ↦ f(x³ mod x²⁵⁶+1)

a₀ = a
a₁ = σ(a₀)
bᵢ = aᵢ · s + eᵢ

✦ Install

pip install vortex-pqc

No runtime dependencies. Compiles an optional native extension when a C toolchain is present; otherwise falls back to a pure-Python reference.

✦ Thirty seconds to a shared secret

from vortex_pqc import generate_keypair, encapsulate, decapsulate

alice = generate_keypair()
bob   = encapsulate(alice.public_key)

# bob sends bob.data (768 B) to alice
alice_secret = decapsulate(bob.data, alice.private_key)

assert alice_secret == bob.shared_secret   # both parties agree

✦ How the exchange works

sequenceDiagram
    participant Alice
    participant Bob

    Note over Alice: generate_keypair()
    Alice->>Alice: pk (800 B) · sk (1248 B)

    Alice->>Bob: public key

    Note over Bob: encapsulate(pk)
    Bob->>Bob: ct (768 B) · ss (32 B)

    Bob->>Alice: ciphertext

    Note over Alice: decapsulate(ct, sk)
    Alice->>Alice: ss (32 B)

    Note over Alice,Bob: shared secrets match

✦ PEM keys

Standard Base64 PEM — compatible with everyday tooling.

from vortex_pqc import PEMKind, write_pem_file, read_pem_file

write_pem_file("key.pem", PEMKind.PRIVATE_KEY, alice.private_key)
sk = read_pem_file("key.pem", PEMKind.PRIVATE_KEY)

-----BEGIN VORTEX256 PRIVATE KEY-----
AQDQABAAABAAAA0AAAAAAPDP/gzQAhAAAAAAAA3QAA0AAPDPAQAAASAAAADQ/wwA
...
-----END VORTEX256 PRIVATE KEY-----

Private key files are written with mode 0600.

✦ C library

cd c && make lib && make test && make demo

#include "vortex_pqc.h"

uint8_t pk[VORTEX_PUBLIC_KEY_BYTES];
uint8_t sk[VORTEX_PRIVATE_KEY_BYTES];
uint8_t ct[VORTEX_CIPHERTEXT_BYTES];
uint8_t ss[VORTEX_SHARED_SECRET_BYTES];

vortex_keypair(pk, sk);
vortex_enc(pk, ct, ss);
vortex_dec(ct, sk, ss);

✦ Documentation

Library home → · Full documentation → · Published docs →

Enterprise: Bajpai Labs

✦ For developers

git clone https://github.com/bajpai-labs/vortex-pqc.git
cd vortex-pqc
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
make test

→ Full workflow in the Development Guide

✦ Security

Research prototype. VORTEX-256 introduces a novel hardness assumption that has not received the years of independent cryptanalysis behind NIST-standardised ML-KEM. Suitable for research, education, and prototyping. Not recommended for production without a formal security review.

✦ Related

This project is fully independent from Kyber-PQC (ML-KEM-512).

Institutional Backing & Maintenance

Post-Quantum Labs is an open-source research and development initiative of Bajpai Labs. All frameworks, kernel-level optimizations, and cryptographic implementations hosted here are engineered and maintained by our core systems architecture team.

Operational Hub	Technical Documentation

Enterprise Support & Custom Integrations: Need deterministic sub-microsecond performance, hardware-software co-design, or custom PQC migration frameworks? Contact our corporate consulting arm at Bajpai Labs.

Maintenance & Ownership

This library is part of the open-source ecosystem developed by Post-Quantum Labs, a wholly-owned division of Bajpai Labs.

• Primary Corporate Hub: https://bajpailabs.com
• Documentation & Benchmarks: https://postquantumlabs.com
• Inquiries: research@postquantumlabs.com / hello@bajpailabs.com

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.