A post-quantum lattice based lightweight authentication and code-based hybrid encryption scheme for IoT devices

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) introduces an active connection between smart devices for revolutionizing our modern lives in this world. But, IoT devices often exhibit several security issues, so transmission between the nodes should be protected using cryptographic approaches. However, the complexity of conventional cryptographic approaches is very high and is vulnerable to quantum attacks. This paper presents a robust and lightweight post-quantum lattice-based authentication and code-based hybrid encryption scheme for resource-constrained IoT devices. The proposed Ring-Learning with Errors (Ring-LWE) based authentication scheme introduces Bernstein reconstruction in polynomial multiplication to achieve minimal computation cost; hence, resource-limited IoT devices are viable to use the reliable authentication mutually. This approach offers indefinite identity privacy and location privacy. Hence, the proposed signature generation and verification process are highly efficient compared to the existing ring signature systems. Also, the proposed post-quantum hybrid code-based encryption scheme follows Diagonal Structure Based QC‑LDPC Codes with column loop optimization and Simplified Log Domain Sum-Product Algorithm (SLDSPA) to provide the function of light weight encryption with minimum hardware requirements. The total authentication delay of the proposed authentication scheme is 23% less than the authentication scheme that is considered conventional polynomial multiplication. Also, the optimized design of the proposed code based HE uses only 64 slices and 640 slices on Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA for encoding and decoding processes, respectively. These simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed cryptographic scheme against other competitive systems in terms of its functionality and hardware complexities.