MB
Michael Baentsch
— On the schedule —
A library-agnostic hybrid classic/PQ OpenSSL provider — built with AI
hybrid-provider is a small, library-agnostic OpenSSL provider that composes classic and post-quantum cryptography purely through the public EVP API, letting it reuse any other provider to deliver arbitrary hybrid or composite classic/PQ combinations — including LAMPS composite signatures and composite KEMs not found in today's oqs-provider. It is a green-field redesign informed by the author's earlier oqs-provider work. Its real novelty is how it was built: not a single line of code was written by the nominal author — all of it was authored by Claude Opus 4.8 over a roughly two-week sprint. Drawing on the full, preserved transcript record, the talk reports both the functionality delivered and the honest lessons learned — above all, what human judgement is still required to make AI-written cryptographic code trustworthy.
— Compositor's note —
Michael Baentsch studied computer science at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany where he graduated 1994 with an MSc and 1997 with a PhD. He then worked for nearly 25 years at a Research facility of a large IT company in various functions, mostly concerned with the development and integration of embedded security solutions, creating many patents in the process. 2003, Michael rounded out his education with an MBA from Strathclyde university. In 2020 Michael became an independent security software consultant primarily interested in giving back to the OpenSource community, most notably in the area of crypto software. His focus is on software for post-quantum use, mostly in the OpenQuantumSafe project, where he still maintains some code bases.