Key Cryptography Research Articles

NDN Security: Cryptographic Approaches for Safeguarding Content-Centric Networking against Threats

The future of the internet demands innovative approaches to communication paradigms and security mechanisms. Named Data Networking (NDN) introduces a ground breaking data-centric communication paradigm, shifting the focus from host-centric networking to efficient content retrieval. This novel framework relies on the dynamic interplay of Interest and Data packets to enable seamless content dissemination and caching. NDN's security framework, built upon digital keys, certificates, and trust policies, ensures the integrity and confidentiality of data transactions within its ecosystem. Cryptographic keys exchanged in real-time through Interest and Data packets, forming the bedrock of secure interactions within NDN. This dynamic key exchange mechanism bolsters security and facilitates controlled data generation. Certificates play a pivotal role in establishing trust, solidifying the connection between names and public keys, while trust policies align with application-defined guidelines to govern key-data entity associations. This paper delves into the security challenges that NDN effectively addresses. By investigating vulnerabilities and assessing the susceptibility of common attacks, it underscores the resolute defense mechanisms inherent in the NDN framework. The inherently anonymous and non-identifying nature of NDN renders eavesdropping and traffic analysis infeasible, bolstering confidentiality. Digital signatures provide robust data integrity, thwarting any attempts at unauthorized modification. The comprehensive data signing mechanism effectively prevents masquerade attacks, and the integration of unique naming and nonce in Interest packets averts replay attacks. In essence, this research not only sheds light on the essential security components of NDN but also illuminates how this paradigm addresses a multitude of security challenges. NDN's forward-thinking content-centric approach and its robust security mechanisms hold the potential to reshape networking paradigms. As we look to the future of the internet, NDN stands as a promising contender for advancing secure, efficient, and transformative networking models.

Analysis on Privacy Preserving Clustering Methods for Big Datasets Using Random Number Generators

Due to the growing requirement for powerful processing capabilities, safeguarding and processing sensitive data in big data systems has become an increasingly prevalent issue. Additional effort is required to secure sensitive data on a system with numerous connections, each of which has its own privacy policy, and to exchange cryptographic keys in accordance with the appropriate protocols for each of these parties. Data encrypted using homomorphic encryption algorithms can undergo the same kinds of arithmetic operations as data encrypted using plaintext. This allows for the outsourcing of computations to cloud services while also providing data privacy by processing in the encrypted domain. Also, key exchange sessions become easier for everyone involved because of this. This study presents new privacy-preserving clustering algorithms and homomorphic encryption systems that may together operate on a shared HPC infrastructure, like the cloud. Therefore, it is not necessary for the participants in this system to have a lot of processing power, as the system would distribute the most power-intensive jobs to any provider of cloud computing. Multiple clustering techniques can have their distance matrices computed in a way that does not compromise user privacy using our technology.

Multi‐Dimensional Physically Unclonable Functions: Optoelectronic Variation‐Induced Multi‐Key Generation from Small Molecule PN Heterostructures

AbstractIn this era of demanding invulnerable security systems against the threat of hacking, physically unclonable functions (PUFs), especially in which can spawn multiple security keys within a single device, has gained attention. This investigation explores the multi‐key generable PUF devices employing organic small molecules, specifically C8‐BTBT and PTCDI‐C13. The variation stems from the formation of irregular PN junctions, haphazardly configured grain boundaries of C8‐BTBT. A comprehensive analysis including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), impedance spectroscopy (IS), and optical simulation, has been substantiated the underlying mechanisms. Exploiting the photo‐responsive characteristics within the light wavelength spectrum of 660 and 530 nm, alongside the electrical characteristics, the capability to generate a total of 30 distinct multi‐security keys in a single device is been successfully. These keys, distinguished by variable parameters such as voltage, light wavelength, and the calculated photo‐to‐dark current ratio (PDCR), manifest novel quantitative and qualitative dimensions in security protocol customization. Inter‐Hamming distance and entropy of these cryptographic keys exhibit commendable averages of 51.9–53.1%, and 0.81, respectively. Moreover, a noteworthy average bit‐aliasing mean value of 51.9%, derived from four distinct batches, underscores the pragmatic feasibility of the proposed conceptual framework for PUF devices.

Analysis on Privacy Preserving Clustering Methods for Big Datasets Using Random Number Generators

Due to the growing requirement for powerful processing capabilities, safeguarding and processing sensitive data in big data systems has become an increasingly prevalent issue. Additional effort is required to secure sensitive data on a system with numerous connections, each of which has its own privacy policy, and to exchange cryptographic keys in accordance with the appropriate protocols for each of these parties. Data encrypted using homomorphic encryption algorithms can undergo the same kinds of arithmetic operations as data encrypted using plaintext. This allows for the outsourcing of computations to cloud services while also providing data privacy by processing in the encrypted domain. Also, key exchange sessions become easier for everyone involved because of this. This study presents new privacy-preserving clustering algorithms and homomorphic encryption systems that may together operate on a shared HPC infrastructure, like the cloud. Therefore, it is not necessary for the participants in this system to have a lot of processing power, as the system would distribute the most power-intensive jobs to any provider of cloud computing. Multiple clustering techniques can have their distance matrices computed in a way that does not compromise user privacy using our technology.

Data Security and Privacy Mechanism Based on Key Exposure Method over Cloud

Recent news reveal a powerful attacker which breaks data confidentiality by acquiring cryptographic keys, by means of coercion or backdoors in cryptographic software. Once the encryption key is exposed, the only viable measure to preserve data confidentiality is to limit the attacker’s access to the ciphertext. This may be achieved, for example, by spreading ciphertext blocks across servers in multiple administrative domains—thus assuming that the adversary cannot compromise all of them. Nevertheless, if data is encrypted with existing schemes, an adversary equipped with the encryption key, can still compromise a single server and decrypt the ciphertext blocks stored therein. In this paper, we study data confidentiality against an adversary which knows the encryption key and has access to a large fraction of the ciphertext blocks. To this end, we propose Bastion, a novel and efficient scheme that guarantees data confidentiality even if the encryption key is leaked and the adversary has access to almost all ciphertext blocks. We analyze the security of Bastion, and we evaluate its performance by means of a prototype implementation. We also discuss practical insights with respect to the integration of Bastion in commercial dispersed storage systems.

Encoding terahertz holographic bits with a computer-generated 3D-printed phase plate

A sub-terahertz holographic image of a two-dimensional 576-bit data code is produced using a diffractive phase-plate element. The phase plate was designed using a modified Gerchberg-Saxton iterative algorithm to encode a focused image of the data code into a phase modulation profile. The complex phase plate structure is fabricated from polylactic acid using fused deposition modeling, a common three-dimensional-printing technique. The design achieves a significantly simplified optical setup, consisting of a 0.14 THz diverging source, the holographic phase plate and a scanning detector, without the need for additional optical elements. The information stored in the data code is an example of a cryptographic private key. Specifically, the private key for a Bitcoin wallet address. Successful retrieval of the encoded information demonstrates a potential use case for terahertz holographic memory, using a storage medium that can be fabricated with consumer-level three-dimensional-printing techniques.

Electrically‐Reconfigurable Extremely‐High Density Physical Unclonable Cryptographic Keys Based on Aurivillius Ferroelectrics

AbstractIn the era of information, emerging hardware security primitives, i.e., hardware random number generators and physically unclonable functions, hold profound promise for the establishment of exceptionally secure network information systems. Nonetheless, these potential solutions are constrained by inherent drawbacks, including the need for additional error correction circuits or algorithms, heightened susceptibility to environmental interference, and limited data density. This paper demonstrates the extremely high‐density, physical‐unclonable cryptographic keys by harnessing stochastically ferroelectric domain polarizations in Aurivillius ferroelectric material CaBi2Nb2O9 (CBNO). Ferroelectric polarization of CBNO nanodomains can serve as a robust source of physical unclonable entropy. Through the application of high‐speed voltage pulses, the inherent randomness of ferroelectric polarizations can be enhanced, thereby yielding cryptographic keys characterized by remarkable uniformity, uniqueness, and negligible environmental sensitivity. More importantly, the voltage pulse operations facilitate the configurability of the ferroelectric cryptographic keys with no correlation. An unprecedented data density of 435 Gbit µm−2 is therefore achievable with a miniaturized CBNO of less than 1 um2. Notably, the reconfigured keys successfully pass the National Institute of Standards and Technology random number tests without requiring additional post‐processing steps. Emanating from the inherent attributes of the material, these high‐density ferroelectric keys confer intrinsic advantages to information security, evincing substantial resistance to duplication or cloning.

Towards accurate keyspace analysis of chaos-based image ciphers

In recent years, there has been a surge in new chaos-based cryptographic algorithms, many of which claim to have unusually large keyspaces. Although cryptographic primitives such as symmetric-key ciphers should have a secret keyspace large enough to resist brute force attacks, simply increasing the size of a secret key may not lead to improved security margins. An n-bit key may not necessarily have a keyspace of 2n-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$2^n-1$$\\end{document} due to the key scheduling algorithm or how the key is used. In this paper, we cryptanalyse several chaos-based algorithms from the perspective of their key schedules. Our numerical analysis is based on the known-plaintext attack model, Kerckhoff’s principle and considers the number representations used for real number computation. Our analysis reveals that the actual security margins for these ciphers are significantly lower, some by a factor of over 2100\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$2^{100}$$\\end{document} than what was claimed. We then provide accurate keyspace estimates for these ciphers. Finally, we highlight alternative solutions for how secret keys can be used in the context of chaos-based cryptography and propose a simple key schedule as a proof of concept. Despite its simplicity, the proposed key schedule not only ensures that the keyspace matches the key length but also passes both the NIST and ENT statistical test suites, making it a viable option for generating secure cryptographic keys. Our work contributes towards addressing one of the fundamental problems in chaos-based cryptography that limits its real-world impact and reputation within the cryptographic community.

A 2D Cryptographic Hash Function Incorporating Homomorphic Encryption for Secure Digital Signatures.

User authentication is a critical aspect of any information exchange systemwhich verifies the identities of individuals seeking access to sensitive information. Conventionally, this approachrelies on establishing robust digital signature protocolswhich employ asymmetric encryption techniques involving a key pair consisting of a public key and its matching private key. In this article, a user verification platform constructed using integrated circuits (ICs) with atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2 ) memtransistors is presented. First, generation of secure cryptographic keys is demonstrated by exploiting the inherent stochasticity of carrier trapping and detrapping at the 2D/oxide interface trap sites. Subsequently, the ability to manipulate the functionality of logical NOR is leveraged to create a secure one-way hash function which when homomorphically operated upon with NAND, XOR, OR, NOT, and AND logic circuits generate distinct digital signatures. These signatures when subsequently decrypted, verify the authenticity of the receiver while ensuring complete preservation of data integrity and confidentiality as the underlying information is never revealed. Finally, the advantages of implementing a NOR-based hashing techniques in comparison to the conventional XOR-based encryption method are established. This demonstration highlights the potential of 2D-based ICs in developing critical hardware information security primitives.

Practical high-dimensional quantum key distribution protocol over deployed multicore fiber

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication scheme for sharing symmetric cryptographic keys based on the laws of quantum physics, and is considered a key player in the realm of cyber-security. A critical challenge for QKD systems comes from the fact that the ever-increasing rates at which digital data are transmitted require more and more performing sources of quantum keys, primarily in terms of secret key generation rate. High-dimensional QKD based on path encoding has been proposed as a candidate approach to address this challenge. However, while proof-of-principle demonstrations based on lab experiments have been reported in the literature, demonstrations in realistic environments are still missing. Here we report the generation of secret keys in a 4-dimensional hybrid time-path-encoded QKD system over a 52-km deployed multicore fiber link forming by looping back two cores of a 26-km 4-core optical fiber. Our results indicate that robust high-dimensional QKD can be implemented in a realistic environment by combining standard telecom equipment with emerging multicore fiber technology.

A Biometric Key-Enhanced Multimedia Encryption Algorithm for Social Media Blockchain

Social media blockchain is emerging as a promising solution to deal with privacy issues, by putting user privacy in edge nodes rather than centralized nodes. Under the protection of information encryption, only those who have cryptographic keys can get access to key information. This work aims at multimedia information in social media blockchain and utilizes the RSA encryption mechanism to construct the information encryption system. Due to the resilience of biometric features, the biometric cryptographic keys are not easy to be fabricated. Thus, this paper proposes a biometric keys-enhanced multimedia encryption algorithm for social media blockchain. First of all, the wiener filter is adopted to make some preprocessing operations to images, such as noise reduction. On this basis, the discrete wavelet transform is adopted to extract feature representation from images, and nonlinear approximation of contourlet transform is adopted to make feature fusion. Next, cryptographic keys can be generated from the fused biometric feature vectors to encrypt biometric data. Finally, some simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate performance of the proposal from three aspects: key generation time, security level and encryption-decryption time complexity. For key generation time, processing speed of the proposal is approximately 1–2[Formula: see text]ms per sample. For security level, the proposal can reach an index value beyond 95% which is higher than comparison methods. For encryption-decryption time complexity, the proposal is about 30% lower than comparison methods.

Provably secured and lightweight authenticated encryption protocol in machine-to-machine communication in industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 and the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) aim to create a platform for data-driven decision-making through machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, often facilitated by the 6LoWPAN standard. However, as a resource-constrained device, 6LoWPAN raises security and privacy concerns for M2M communications, necessitating efficient and lightweight authentication and key establishment (AKE) protocols. Existing AKE protocols relying on asymmetric and symmetric cryptographic keys are susceptible to attacks and entail significant storage, communication, and computation overheads. This study examines a scheme called SLAP to uncover vulnerabilities and challenges in AKE-based M2M deployments in IIoT, including traceability, denial of service (DoS), perfect forward secrecy (PFS), and ephemeral secret leakage (ESL) attacks. Therefore, a privacy-preserving, secure, and lightweight authenticated encryption protocol called provably secure, lightweight, authenticated encryption (PSLAE) is proposed to address these issues. This approach includes hash operations, XOR operations, and authenticated encryption primitives for lightweight and secure mechanisms. It uses a one-time alias identity and fresh parameters to ensure privacy and protection against traceability and DoS, PFS, and ESL attacks. PSLAE undergoes rigorous informal and formal verification through SVO logic and Scyther, demonstrating resilience against the extended Canetti–Krawczyk and Dolev–Yao threat models. Moreover, it provides a lightweight, secure, efficient, and reduced storage, communication, and computation overhead compared with related works for AKE-based M2M in IIoT.

Optical Encryption Using Attention-Inserted Physics-Driven Single-Pixel Imaging

Optical encryption based on single-pixel imaging (SPI) has made great advances with the introduction of deep learning. However, the use of deep neural networks usually requires a long training time, and the networks need to be retrained once the target scene changes. With this in mind, we propose an SPI encryption scheme based on an attention-inserted physics-driven neural network. Here, an attention module is used to encrypt the single-pixel measurement value sequences of two images, together with a sequence of cryptographic keys, into a one-dimensional ciphertext signal to complete image encryption. Then, the encrypted signal is fed into a physics-driven neural network for high-fidelity decoding (i.e., decryption). This scheme eliminates the need for pre-training the network and gives more freedom to spatial modulation. Both simulation and experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility and eavesdropping resistance of this scheme. Thus, it will lead SPI-based optical encryption closer to intelligent deep encryption.

Chaos CSPRNG Design As a Key in Symmetric Cryptography Using Logarithmic Functions

This research uses the logarithm function as a key component in generating random numbers in the Chaos CSPRNG framework. The main problem addressed here is the generation of keys for cryptography, recognizing the important role of cryptographic keys in safeguarding sensitive information. By using mathematical functions, specifically logarithmic functions, as a key generation method, this research explores the potential for increasing the uncertainty and strength of cryptographic keys. The proposed approach involves the systematic utilization of various mathematical functions to generate diverse and unpredictable data sets. This data set, derived from the application of logarithmic functions, serves as the basis for generating random numbers. Through a series of tests such as Randomness Test and Cryptography Test, this research shows that the data generated from these functions can be utilized effectively as a reliable source for generating random numbers, and has a low correlation value, thereby contributing to the overall security of a symmetric cryptographic system.

A dependable and resource-frugal ring oscillator physically unclonable function

ABSTRACT Silicon Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) is a crucial component for hardware security, providing unique device identification in networks. PUF provides robust security for cryptographic keys and IC digital fingerprints. However, resource constraints in network devices limit its use in security protocols. To address this challenge, PUF offers a lightweight hardware security solution with two main types: strong PUF (e.g. arbiter PUF) and Ring Oscillator (RO) PUF. The first option produces large CRPs with improved security but incurs hardware overhead, whereas the second option offers lower overhead with smaller CRP size, leading to reduced security. This paper introduces a novel, cost-effective solution to enhance RO PUF security while reducing hardware limitations. Our proposal involves a resource sharing technique with scan flip-flops, multiplexers, and inverter logic. This approach takes advantage of existing scan chains in circuit netlists to reduce PUF area without sacrificing uniqueness. A specific set of test patterns and odd number of inverters transform the memory-based PUF into an RO PUF. Our solution also leverages pass transistor-based implementation to significantly reduce power consumption and area overhead. Simulation results show that our approach effectively reduces area and power consumption while maintaining PUF uniqueness.

Service for Deploying Digital Twins of QKD Networks

Quantum technologies promise major advances in different areas. From computation to sensing or telecommunications, quantum implementations could bring significant improvements to these fields, arousing the interest of researchers, companies, and governments. In particular, the deployment of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) networks, which enable the secure dissemination of cryptographic keys to remote application entities following Quantum Mechanics Principles, appears to be one of the most attractive and relevant use cases. Quantum devices and equipment are still in a development phase, making their availability low and their price high, hindering the deployment of physical QKD networks and, therefore, the research and experimentation activities related to this field. In this context, this paper focuses on providing research stakeholders with an open-access testbed where it is feasible to emulate the deployment of QKD networks, thus enabling the execution of experiments and trials, where even potential network attacks can be analyzed, without the quantum physical equipment requirement, nor compromising the integrity of an already built QKD network. The designed solution allows users to automatically deploy, configure, and run a digital twin environment of a QKD network, offering cost-effectiveness and great flexibility in the study of the integration of quantum communications in the current network infrastructures. This solution is aligned with the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) standardized application interface for QKD, and is built upon open-source technologies. The feasibility of this solution has been validated throughout several functional trials carried out in the 5G Telefónica Open Network Innovation Centre (5TONIC), verifying the service performance in terms of speed and discarded qubits when generating the quantum keys.

Joint Authentication Public Network Cryptographic Key Distribution Protocol Based on Single Exposure Compressive Ghost Imaging

In the existing ghost-imaging-based cryptographic key distribution (GCKD) protocols, the cryptographic keys need to be encoded by using many modulated patterns, which undoubtedly incurs long measurement time and huge memory consumption. Given this, based on snapshot compressive ghost imaging, a public network cryptographic key distribution protocol is proposed, where the cryptographic keys and joint authentication information are encrypted into several color block diagrams to guarantee security. It transforms the previous single-pixel sequential multiple measurements into multi-pixel single exposure measurements, significantly reducing sampling time and memory storage. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of this protocol and its ability to detect illegal attacks. Therefore, it takes GCKD a big step closer to practical applications.

All-optical multilevel physical unclonable functions.

Disordered photonic structures are promising for the realization of physical unclonable functions-physical objects that can overcome the limitations of conventional digital security and can enable cryptographic protocols immune against attacks by future quantum computers. The physical configuration of traditional physical unclonable functions is either fixed or can only be permanently modified, allowing one token per device and limiting their practicality. Here we overcome this limitation by creating reconfigurable structures made by light-transformable polymers in which the physical structure of the unclonable function can be reconfigured reversibly. Our approach allows the simultaneous coexistence of multiple physical unclonable functions within one device. The physical transformation is done all-optically in a reversible and spatially controlled fashion, allowing the generation of more complex keys. At the same time, as a set of switchable individual physical unclonable functions, it enables the authentication of multiple clients and allows for the practical implementations of quantum secure authentication and nonlinear generators of cryptographic keys.

Key derivation function: key-hash based computational extractor and stream based pseudorandom expander.

The key derivation function is a specific cryptographic algorithm that transforms private string and public strings into one or more cryptographic keys. The cryptographic keys are essential for protecting electronic data during transmission on the internet. This function is designed based on a computational extractor and pseudorandom expander and is typically constructed using various cryptography ciphers such as stream ciphers, keyed-hash message authentication codes, and block ciphers. Having secure and efficient key derivation function designs is essential in the development of numerous security systems. A vulnerable key derivation function could potentially give attackers the ability to compromise an otherwise secure cryptosystem. This research proposes a different approach by combining two different cryptography ciphers to develop key derivation functions. The findings demonstrate that a computational extractor utilizing keyed-hash message authentication codes and a pseudorandom expander using stream ciphers maintain the highest level of security while also providing efficiency benefits in terms of execution time compared to existing key derivation function schemes.

Audio encryption and decryption using AES algorithm technique

Audio cryptography is the practice of encrypting audio data to prevent illegal access to and listening to it. This paper presents an innovative technique of audio cryptography based on the Python computer language. To ensure secrecy and integrity, the suggested system encrypts and decrypts audio signals using advanced cryptographic techniques. A crucial component of AES, the cryptographic key is dynamically created to improve security. Python's broad library support and ease of use make it an ideal platform for implementing the AES algorithm, which ensures dependable and effective audio data encryption. The system utilizes Python's cryptography library for seamless integration and ease of implementation. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the AES algorithm in securely encrypting and decrypting audio data with reduced noise compared to traditional methods.