Efficient Post-Quantum Secure Network Coding Signatures in the Standard Model

Abstract

In contrast to traditional “store-and-forward” routing mechanisms, network coding offers an elegant solution for achieving maximum network throughput. The core idea is that intermediate network nodes linearly combine received data packets so that the destination nodes can decode original files from some authenticated packets. Although network coding has many advantages, especially in wireless sensor network and peer-to-peer network, the encoding mechanism of intermediate nodes also results in some additional security issues. For a powerful adversary who can control arbitrary number of malicious network nodes and can eavesdrop on the entire network, cryptographic signature schemes provide undeniable authentication mechanisms for network nodes. However, with the development of quantum technologies, some existing network coding signature schemes based on some traditional number-theoretic primitives vulnerable to quantum cryptanalysis. In this paper we first present an efficient network coding signature scheme in the standard model using lattice theory, which can be viewed as the most promising tool for designing post-quantum cryptographic protocols. In the security proof, we propose a new method for generating a random lattice and the corresponding trapdoor, which may be used in other cryptographic protocols. Our scheme has many advantages, such as supporting multi-source networks, low computational complexity and low communication overhead.