Phylax ZeroTrust
Distributed post-quantum authentication for the systems that cannot fail.
No secrets stored anywhere. No single point of failure. Native AI agent governance. Built on FROST threshold signing and NIST FIPS 203/204/205 cryptography. Certifiable for CMMC, FedRAMP 20x, and NSS acquisitions from deployment.
The Problem
Every existing auth system stores something.
Password hashes. Session tokens. Certificate stores. Private keys in hardware security modules. The format changes. The fundamental problem does not: there is a stored secret, and whoever controls that secret controls access.
Classical zero trust frameworks addressed access policy. They did not address the stored credential problem. Your identity provider still holds a database of secrets. Your PKI infrastructure still holds certificate private keys. Breaching those systems -- or the humans who manage them -- still produces access.
Phylax ZeroTrust does not reduce the risk of a credential store breach. It eliminates the credential store.
How It Works
The Signing Ceremony
Based on FROST (Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold Signatures, IETF RFC 9591). Two rounds. No stored secrets. No vote. A cryptographic proof or nothing.
Entity requests access
A person, organization, AI agent, or device submits an authentication request to a protected resource. The request identifies the entity by its Decentralized Identifier.
Node network receives the request
The coordinator service distributes the request to the N participating nodes. Each node holds a key share. No node holds the complete key -- it does not exist as an assembled value.
Round 1: commitment generation
Each participating node generates a fresh nonce and publishes a cryptographic commitment. Commitments are collected by the coordinator and distributed to all participating nodes.
Round 2: partial signature computation
Each node independently computes a partial signature using the request message, the collected commitments, and its own key share. Partial signatures are returned to the coordinator.
Threshold combination and verification
The coordinator combines K or more valid partial signatures into a single cryptographic proof. Either the combined signature is valid or it is not -- there is no vote, no counting, no pass/fail per node. The resource verifies the proof against the public key and applies the Verifiable Credential scope to determine what the entity is authorized to do.
Capabilities
What It Does
No Secrets Stored
No authentication credential exists as a stored value on any node. Each node holds a mathematical key share. Compromise any number of nodes below the threshold and you have zero information about the key or any identity in the system.
Post-Quantum Cryptography
ML-KEM (FIPS 203) for all key encapsulation. ML-DSA (FIPS 204) for all credential signatures. AES-256 throughout. All three are on the NIST approved algorithm list. Certifiable for NSS acquisitions under CNSA 2.0 from day one.
Identity for Every Entity Type
People, organizations, AI agents, IoT devices, and services all hold W3C Decentralized Identifiers. Authentication answers who is this entity and what is it authorized to do -- not just whether a password matches.
Native AI Agent Governance
Each AI agent receives a DID at instantiation. A scoped Verifiable Credential defines exactly which systems it can access, which actions it can take, and when that authorization expires. High-stakes operations require threshold human approval before the signing ceremony completes. Every agent action writes to an append-only signed log.
Adaptive Behavioral Intelligence
Every authentication event builds a per-identity behavioral baseline. Deviations trigger automatic threshold increases or step-up authentication. The K parameter in the signing ceremony adjusts in real time based on risk score. The system does not just respond to attacks -- it gets measurably harder to penetrate the longer it runs.
Fault Tolerant by Design
In a 4-of-7 deployment, any three nodes can be simultaneously offline, under attack, or compromised. The signing ceremony continues with the remaining nodes. There is no manual repair process, no service interruption, and no single administrator who can restore a failed node that others must trust.
Comparison
Classical Zero Trust vs. Phylax ZeroTrust
Classical Zero Trust
Credentials stored on servers
Phylax ZeroTrust
No credential stored anywhere
Classical Zero Trust
Pass/fail vote counts agreeing nodes
Phylax ZeroTrust
FROST threshold ceremony -- no vote, cryptographic proof only
Classical Zero Trust
Fixed authentication threshold
Phylax ZeroTrust
Adaptive K threshold adjusts to real-time risk score
Classical Zero Trust
No standard for AI agent identity
Phylax ZeroTrust
Native DID + scoped Verifiable Credentials + threshold human approval
Classical Zero Trust
Manual repair when nodes fail
Phylax ZeroTrust
Protocol continues through node failures automatically
Classical Zero Trust
Rules-based anomaly detection
Phylax ZeroTrust
Per-identity behavioral baseline with adaptive response
Classical Zero Trust
Point-in-time compliance assessment
Phylax ZeroTrust
Continuous append-only signed audit log
Classical Zero Trust
AES-128 or RSA at the core
Phylax ZeroTrust
ML-KEM + ML-DSA + AES-256 (NIST FIPS 203/204/205)
Who It's For
Built for Specific Environments
Federal and Defense
Financial Institutions
Enterprise Security
FAQ
Hard Questions
How is this different from our existing zero trust product?
Most zero trust products -- including enterprise identity platforms from major vendors -- authenticate by checking a stored credential. A password hash, a certificate, a session token. That stored value is the target in a breach. Phylax ZeroTrust stores nothing. Each node holds a mathematical share that has no value without the others. There is no credential database to breach, no certificate store to rotate after a compromise, and no password reset process to social-engineer.
What happens when a node goes offline or is compromised?
The signing ceremony continues with the remaining healthy nodes. In a 4-of-7 deployment, any three nodes can be simultaneously offline, under attack, or confirmed compromised -- authentication continues at full capacity. The affected node is excluded automatically. When it comes back online, it resynchronizes without any manual intervention or emergency key rotation.
Can this work alongside our existing Active Directory or LDAP deployment?
Yes. Phylax ZeroTrust issues Decentralized Identifiers to entities that already exist in your identity systems. It does not require replacing existing infrastructure. Existing Active Directory groups and LDAP schemas map to Verifiable Credential scopes during a phased migration. The two systems operate in parallel until migration is complete.
How does AI agent governance work in practice?
Each AI agent receives a DID at instantiation. A Verifiable Credential issued against that DID defines which systems the agent can access, which actions it is permitted to take, which data classifications it can touch, and when that authorization expires. For operations above a defined sensitivity threshold, the signing ceremony requires agreement from a set of human approver nodes before completing -- the agent cannot self-authorize beyond its credential scope. Every action the agent takes is attributed to its DID and written to an append-only signed log that satisfies FedRAMP 20x KSI-IAM and OMB M-24-10 audit requirements.
Ready to go deeper?
All briefings are conducted under NDA. Bring your security architecture questions. We will bring the protocol specification and compliance documentation.