Toward Quantum-Safe Software Engineering: A Vision for Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration
For software engineers and security practitioners, this paper outlines a vision for a new research direction but offers no empirical validation or concrete tools.
The paper identifies that migrating legacy software to post-quantum cryptography is a new software engineering challenge, not a simple library swap, and proposes the Automated Quantum-safe Adaptation (AQuA) framework with a three-pillar agenda for detection, refactoring, and verification. No concrete results or numbers are provided.
The quantum threat to cybersecurity has accelerated the standardization of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). Migrating legacy software to these quantum-safe algorithms is not a simple library swap, but a new software engineering challenge: existing vulnerability detection, refactoring, and testing tools are not designed for PQC's probabilistic behavior, side-channel sensitivity, and complex performance trade-offs. To address these challenges, this paper outlines a vision for a new class of tools and introduces the Automated Quantum-safe Adaptation (AQuA) framework, with a three-pillar agenda for PQC-aware detection, semantic refactoring, and hybrid verification, thereby motivating Quantum-Safe Software Engineering (QSSE) as a distinct research direction.