Feature Request: Add Support for Curve448 GPG Keys

[vlakoff]

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Hello GitHub team,

I’ve been signing my commits with RSA 4096, but since ECC is now the preferred method, I decided to move to elliptic curves. While Curve25519 is widely supported, its security level is roughly equivalent to RSA 3072, which feels like a downgrade compared to RSA 4096. For a more future‑proof setup, I wanted to use Curve448.

Curve448 is similar in design to Curve25519 but offers stronger security. Unfortunately, when I try to add a Curve448 GPG key to GitHub, I receive the following error:

We got an error adding your GPG key. Please verify the input is a valid GPG key.

Interestingly, I can successfully add NIST P‑521 and Brainpool P‑512 keys. However:

• NIST curves raise transparency concerns in some communities.
• Brainpool curves are less widely adopted.

This makes Curve448 an ideal candidate: stronger than Curve25519, not tied to NIST, and designed for modern cryptographic needs. While its implementation is more complex (requiring careful constant‑time handling), it is considered more secure when implemented correctly.

👉 Request: Please consider adding support for Curve448 GPG keys to GitHub. This would allow developers to use a stronger, non‑NIST elliptic curve option for commit signing, ensuring long‑term security and trustworthiness.

Thank you for considering this enhancement!

[github-actions[bot]]

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[vlakoff]

Just for fun, here are some equivalence figures (in terms of comparable security strength):

• Curve25519 ≈ RSA 3072
• Curve448 ≈ RSA 10240 (!)
• NIST P‑521 / Brainpool P‑512 ≈ RSA 15360 (!!)

And of course, all of these elliptic‑curve options remain significantly smaller and faster than RSA.