Q-Shield: Automated Crypto-Agility Auditing and Quantum-Risk Prioritization for Legacy Infrastructure

  • Unique Paper ID: 210103
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue: 5
  • PageNo: 4234-4245
  • Abstract:
  • Cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) would break the public-key algorithms that secure most of today’s digital infrastructure, including RSA, Diffie–Hellman and elliptic-curve cryptography. Because adversaries can record encrypted traffic now and decrypt it later (Harvest Now, Decrypt Later, HNDL), migration cannot wait until a CRQC exists. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published its first post-quantum standards, yet organizations still struggle with two practical problems: they do not know where vulnerable cryptography is deployed, and they cannot tell which instances to migrate first. This paper presents Q-Shield, a web-based platform that (i) discovers cryptographic usage across source code, network services and certificates; (ii) consolidates findings into a cryptographic inventory; (iii) combines algorithm vulnerability with data sensitivity, confidentiality lifetime, asset criticality and exposure into a configurable quantum-risk score; and (iv) produces a dependency-aware migration roadmap. We describe the architecture, the scoring and prioritization models, a prototype implementation, and an evaluation methodology based on a synthetic enterprise dataset and expert-labelled ground truth. The main contribution of this paper is not the detection of RSA or ECC itself, but the transformation of fragmented cryptographic observations into a lifecycle-aware and dependency-aware migration priority.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{210103,
        author = {Deepa P and Agalya S and Barath D and Harisudhan K and Nikidha M and Reya Stebe S},
        title = {Q-Shield: Automated Crypto-Agility Auditing and Quantum-Risk Prioritization for Legacy Infrastructure},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {5},
        pages = {4234-4245},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=210103},
        abstract = {Cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) would break the public-key algorithms that secure most of today’s digital infrastructure, including RSA, Diffie–Hellman and elliptic-curve cryptography. Because adversaries can record encrypted traffic now and decrypt it later (Harvest Now, Decrypt Later, HNDL), migration cannot wait until a CRQC exists. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published its first post-quantum standards, yet organizations still struggle with two practical problems: they do not know where vulnerable cryptography is deployed, and they cannot tell which instances to migrate first. This paper presents Q-Shield, a web-based platform that (i) discovers cryptographic usage across source code, network services and certificates; (ii) consolidates findings into a cryptographic inventory; (iii) combines algorithm vulnerability with data sensitivity, confidentiality lifetime, asset criticality and exposure into a configurable quantum-risk score; and (iv) produces a dependency-aware migration roadmap. We describe the architecture, the scoring and prioritization models, a prototype implementation, and an evaluation methodology based on a synthetic enterprise dataset and expert-labelled ground truth. The main contribution of this paper is not the detection of RSA or ECC itself, but the transformation of fragmented cryptographic observations into a lifecycle-aware and dependency-aware migration priority.},
        keywords = {crypto-agility, cryptographic inventory, Harvest Now Decrypt Later, migration planning, post-quantum cryptography, quantum risk assessment, static analysis},
        month = {October},
        }

Cite This Article

P, D., & S, A., & D, B., & K, H., & M, N., & S, R. S. (2026). Q-Shield: Automated Crypto-Agility Auditing and Quantum-Risk Prioritization for Legacy Infrastructure. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 13(5), 4234–4245.

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