FIPS Validation Update - June 2022

We are excited to announce that Rocky Linux has reached a significant step in the FIPS 140-3 validation process; right on schedule, Rocky Linux is now named in the NIST Implementation Under Test List.

A big, gigantic thank you to our founding partner and sponsor @CtrlIQ (CIQ), who has arranged and paid for the FIPS validation process and will be providing it back to the entire RESF / Rocky community for free!

This is not a small effort, the FIPS validation is a near million dollar investment, and even more including the engineering effort. We are all very grateful for this amazing contribution to the open source community!

What is FIPS?

The Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 140-3, FIPS 140-3 is a U.S. government computer security standard used to approve cryptographic modules. FIPS validation is required in many applications with high security requirements, such as in health care, government, defense, and financial environments.