FIPS 140-2 certificates reach their sunset on September 21, 2026, after which NIST’s Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) moves them to its Historical list. FIPS 140-2 modules “can remain active for 5 years after validation or until September 21, 2026, when the FIPS 140-2 validations will be moved to the historical list,” NIST wrote on its transition page.
A cryptographic module is the hardware, software, or firmware that performs encryption, signing, or key management inside a product. FIPS 140 is the federal standard for testing such modules. The Secretary of Commerce approved its current version, FIPS 140-3, on March 22, 2019.
Under NIST’s guidance, FIPS 140-2 modules can still be bought and used in existing systems, but federal agencies should not put them into new ones. “Even on the historical list, CMVP supports the purchase and use of these modules for existing systems,” NIST wrote. On its validated-modules page, CMVP wrote that federal agencies “should not include these in new systems.”
Supply of FIPS 140-3 modules
CMVP stopped accepting FIPS 140-2 submissions for new certificates on April 1, 2022. On the transition page, NIST reminded purchasers that “for several years there may be a limited selection of FIPS 140-3 modules from which to choose.” It recommended that they consider every validated module that meets their requirements, “regardless of whether the modules are validated against FIPS 140-2 or FIPS 140-3.”
FedRAMP, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program that authorizes cloud services for federal use, counted 285 modules in active review and 234 in laboratory testing as of July 2026. In an FAQ on the sunset, the program wrote that there were “only 614 vendors who have achieved full FIPS 140-3 Certification.”
FedRAMP told cloud providers still waiting for a validated FIPS 140-3 module that they may stay on the historical module until the new version is available. It wrote that this choice “carries risk and should be tracked as an open vulnerability.”
FedRAMP listed two other options, moving to a validated FIPS 140-3 module or adopting an unvalidated one early. It said the early move should also be tracked as an open vulnerability. The program wrote that managing those risks is the provider’s job.
Defense contractors
The Department of War said on July 13, 2026, that it would enforce NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 through self-assessments and selected government-led reviews. NIST wrote the publication for nonfederal organizations that handle controlled unclassified information (CUI), sensitive government data that is not classified. Its requirement 3.13.11 says, “Employ FIPS-validated cryptography when used to protect the confidentiality of CUI.” NIST withdrew Revision 2 in May 2024 and replaced it with Revision 3. The department still enforces Revision 2.
On the same day, the department suspended Phase II of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements for contractors. Those requirements had been scheduled to take effect on November 10.
Post-quantum modules
By September 21, CMVP had validated at least seven FIPS 140-3 modules with NIST’s post-quantum algorithms among their approved algorithms. Five are software modules that support ML-KEM, formerly CRYSTALS-Kyber, NIST’s standard key-encapsulation mechanism (KEM). A KEM is a method two parties use to agree on a secret key over an open network.
CMVP validated Geomys’s Go Cryptographic Module on April 27 and the dynamic and static builds of Amazon Web Services’ AWS-LC 3 module on June 3 and June 5. It validated SafeLogic’s CryptoComply Native Go Module on June 23 and Chainguard’s FIPS Provider for OpenSSL on September 15. The Chainguard module also supports the signature standards ML-DSA, formerly CRYSTALS-Dilithium, and SLH-DSA, formerly SPHINCS+.
The other two are hardware security modules (HSMs), dedicated devices that generate, store, and use keys. Both are validated at Level 3, the second-highest of the standard’s four security levels.
Thales Trusted Cyber Technologies’ Luna T7, validated July 29, supports ML-KEM and ML-DSA. Crypto4A Technologies’ QASM module, validated August 19, also supports SLH-DSA, the hash-based signature standard.
The next federal date
National security systems (NSS) include systems that handle classified, intelligence, or military information. For those systems, the National Security Agency (NSA) maintains the Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0, known as CNSA 2.0. The suite includes ML-KEM-1024 and ML-DSA-87, the strongest variants of the two standards, for all classification levels.
In its CNSA 2.0 FAQ, NSA wrote that under CNSSP 15, a national security systems policy, “by January 1, 2027, all new acquisitions for NSS will be required to be CNSA 2.0 compliant unless otherwise noted.” That date is 102 days after the FIPS 140-2 sunset.
Update, November 12, 2026: CMVP has since moved FIPS 140-2 certificates to its Historical list. Certificate pages now give the reason as “Moved to historical list due to sunsetting.” In version 2.2 of the CNSA 2.0 FAQ, dated October 2026, NSA restated the acquisition requirement. It wrote that under CNSSP 15, “by January 1, 2027, CNSA 2.0 algorithms will be required in all new acquisitions for NSS.”
