Resist Quantum Computer Attacks Research Articles

Design and Evaluation of Device Authentication and Secure Communication System with PQC for AIoT Environments

With the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the number of IoT users is growing year after year. IoT will become a part of our daily lives, so it is likely that the security of these devices will be an important issue in the future. Quantum computing is maturing, and the security threat associated with quantum computing will be faced in the transmissions of IoT devices, which mainly use wireless communication technologies. Therefore, to ensure the protection of transmitted data, a cryptographic algorithm that is efficient in defeating quantum computer attacks needs to be developed. In this paper, we propose a device authentication and secure communication system with post-quantum cryptography (PQC) for AIoT environments using the NTRU and Falcon signature mechanism, which can resist quantum computer attacks and be used in AIoT environments to effectively protect the confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation of transmitted data. We also used Raspberry Pi to simulate AIoT devices for implementation.

An Efficient E-Voting System for Business Intelligence Innovation Based on Blockchain

AbstractBusiness intelligence (BI) is driven by data and provides valuable business insights and decision support through data analysis, mining, and visualization. The application of blockchain technology in electronic voting can make the voting process more fair and transparent. This is because the decentralized nature of blockchain technology ensures that voting data is not lost due to a single central server failure and also mitigates the risk of data tampering. However, electronic voting still faces security issues that are not easily resistant to quantum attacks. To address these challenges, we propose post-quantum cryptography and verifiable random functions for secure and efficient business intelligence electronic voting. Firstly, we propose a post-quantum verifiable random function algorithm that can resist quantum computer attacks. Secondly, we introduce a consensus algorithm based on random functions to achieve fast and efficient consensus. Thirdly, we propose a blockchain architecture based on the consensus algorithm to achieve secure and efficient blockchain applications. By integrating post-quantum verifiable random functions, consensus algorithms, and blockchain technology, we present an efficient business intelligence electronic voting system. Implementation and comparison with relevant designs demonstrate that this system provides efficient and secure electronic voting services for business intelligence users. Furthermore, the efficient consensus algorithm can be utilized to improve other blockchain applications or decentralized applications.

Proofs of retrievability with tag outsourcing based on Goppa codes

In cloud storage, because the data owner loses the physical control of the data, the data may be tampered with or deleted. Although, it has been proposed to adopt provable data possession (PDP) or proofs of retrievability (POR) mechanism to ensure the integrity of cloud storage data. However, at present, most PDP/POR schemes are based on traditional cryptographic mechanisms and cannot resist quantum computer attacks. For this reason, the first POR scheme based on coding mechanism (BC-POR) is proposed in this paper. The scheme is constructed based on the difficulty assumptions of 2-regular word syndrome decoding (2-RWSD) problem and Goppa code distinguishing problem. Moreover, considering the low computing power of lightweight users, this paper adopts an audit scheme that supports the outsourcing of data tag calculation on the client side, that is, the calculation of data tag generation is outsourced to a third-party institution for execution. First of all, this scheme can prevent third-party institution from obtaining the real content of the data in the process of calculation tags and realize the privacy protection of user data. Secondly, the scheme uses a FSB hash function to generate a decodable syndrome, and this algorithm does not require iterative operations during the tagging process, thereby reducing the computational overhead of the tag. Finally, the provable security method is used to prove the security of the proposed scheme, and the performance of the proposed audit scheme is evaluated to prove the effectiveness of the scheme.

Improving Security of Internet of Vehicles Based on Post-quantum Signatures with Systolic Divisions

Internet of Things (IoT) techniques have been employed in many areas, e.g., vehicles, smart home, and medicine. Among the applications of IoTs, the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is one of the most popular techniques. IoVs are protected by public key cryptographic systems, such as RSA and ECC. However, such systems are vulnerable to quantum computer attacks. Thus, we improve the security of IoV-based post-quantum signatures, which can resist quantum computer attacks. The key operations are divisions in a finite field. Hence, we improve the security of IoV-based post-quantum signatures with division by employing systolic architectures. We propose a systolic architecture for computing division in composite fields. After that, we improve the IoT security-based post-quantum signatures with systolic divisions. We test and verify our design on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA); the experimental results confirm our estimates. Furthermore, the optimized method proposed can be further applied to various applications like solving system of linear equations and cryptographic applications for IoT security.

Fast asymmetric encryption and decryption of SimpleMatrix scheme for Internet of Things

Asymmetric cryptography plays an essential role in many areas, including cloud computing, big data, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT). However, most of them are based on the difficulty of factorizing large numbers or discrete logarithm problems, which are not secure to quantum computer attacks. SimpleMatrix is a new multivariate encryption scheme based on simple matrix multiplications, which can resist quantum computer attacks. Because of the low speed and demands of large finite fields, SimpleMatrix is limited in applications that use small finite fields. As a result, it is critical to improve the efficiency of SimpleMatrix to make its applications broader. In this paper, we speed up the encryption and decryption of SimpleMatrix by building efficient small finite field arithmetics based on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) technology. We propose a fast architecture for encryption and decryption of SimpleMatrix based on table look-up based composite field multiplications and inversions and fast Gauss–Jordan elimination for solving systems of linear equations in a composite field. We test and verify the hardware architecture of SimpleMatrix on an FPGA, and the experimental results confirm our estimates and comparisons show that our design is much faster than other implementations. Thus, the hardware architecture can be used in FPGA-based systems of cloud computing, IoT, etc., for accelerating encryption and decryption.

A traceability method of biofuel production and utilization based on blockchain

Biofuel is one of the hot research directions in energy field. However, the data of the production and utilization of biofuels has not been widely valued. Blockchain is a decentralized data management technology, which can provide traceable data storage for the production and utilization of biofuels. As the number of blockchain applications of biofuels grows, security, efficiency and privacy have become the main concerns of the users. In order to address the security, efficiency and privacy challenges in biofuels system, we propose an efficient blockchain model based on post-quantum cryptography. First, in order to resist quantum computer attacks in biofuels system, we present a post-quantum cryptographic scheme based on multivariate signatures. Second, in order to improve the privacy protection in biofuels system, we propose a blind signature based on the post-quantum cryptographic scheme. Third, in order to improve the efficiency in biofuels system, we propose an efficient payment model. The blockchain model based on post-quantum cryptography is evaluated and the results show that the biofuels system is efficient. Besides, the new biofuels system is secure against both traditional computer attacks and quantum computer attacks.

Postquantum Cryptography, Part 2

This is part 2 of IEEE Security & Privacy magazine’s special issue on Postquantum Cryptography. As explained in the introduction to part 1, public-key cryptography is indispensable for the security of open computer networks, particularly the Internet. Because of public-key cryptography’s relevance and quantum computers’ increasingly realistic threat to this technology, it’s necessary to come up with practical and secure postquantum cryptography—that is, public-key cryptography that can be expected to resist quantum computer attacks.

Designated Cloud Server Public Key Encryption with Keyword Search from Lattice in the Standard Model

Recently, how to retrieve the encrypted data efficiently from a cloud storage system becomes a hot topic. Public key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) can allow one to search the encrypted data with a keyword efficiently. Due to the booming of post-quantum cryptography, we propose public key encryption with keyword search from lattice assumption, which can resist quantum computer attacks. We delegate a particular cloud server to search the results, thus only the designated cloud server can finish the test process. Our scheme has been proved ciphertext indistinguishability in the standard model, which can reflect its security in the real world. To the best of our knowledge, our scheme is the first construction based on lattice in the standard model, which is a step stone in the post-quantum cryptographic communication.

Efficient multi-receiver identity-based signcryption from lattice assumption

Signcryption is a public-key cryptographic primitive which combines the functions of public-key encryption and digital signature into a single logical step at low computational and communication costs. While multi-receiver signcryption is suited for a situation where a sender wants to send a signcrypted message to multiple receivers in a confidential and authenticated way. Due to this attractive property, recently, multi-receiver signcryption plays an important role in some practical applications such as virtual conference as well as authenticated mail transferring. In this paper, we present an efficient multi-receiver identity-based signcryption (MIBSC) scheme from lattice assumption which is believed to resist quantum computer attacks. The proposed scheme is provably secure in the random oracle model, which has the indistinguishability against chosen ciphertext attacks under the hardness of learning with errors (LWE), and existentially unforgeability against chosen message attacks under the small integer solution assumption (SIS). Moreover, we also compare our MIBSC scheme with existing schemes from performance efficiency and security, the result shows that our proposed scheme is more efficient and more secure. In particular, our scheme can be properly applied in the post-quantum communication environments.

Under Quantum Computer Attack: Is Rainbow a Replacement of RSA and Elliptic Curves on Hardware?

Among cryptographic systems, multivariate signature is one of the most popular candidates since it has the potential to resist quantum computer attacks. Rainbow belongs to the multivariate signature, which can be viewed as a multilayer unbalanced Oil-Vinegar system. In this paper, we present techniques to exploit Rainbow signature on hardware meeting the requirements of efficient high-performance applications. We propose a general architecture for efficient hardware implementations of Rainbow and enhance our design in three directions. First, we present a fast inversion based on binary trees. Second, we present an efficient multiplication based on compact construction in composite fields. Third, we present a parallel solving system of linear equations based on Gauss-Jordan elimination. Via further other minor optimizations and by integrating the major improvement above, we implement our design in composite fields on standard cell CMOS Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The experimental results show that our implementation takes 4.9 us and 242 clock cycles to generate a Rainbow signature with the frequency of 50 MHz. Comparison results show that our design is more efficient than the RSA and ECC implementations.

Towards Wearability in Cryptographic Systems: A Novel Architecture Based on Rainbow Scheme for Wearable Devices

Wearable devices are examples of the Internet of Things, which often enable objects to exchange data with other connected devices, without requiring human intervention. Since quantum computers have been a potential threat to most of the public cryptographic systems, the data security has been the focuses of the users of wearable devices. Among public cryptographic systems, Multivariate Public Key Cryptography (MPKC) is one of the most popular candidates, which can resist quantum computer attacks. MPKC is based on a NP-hard problem, which includes Rainbow, UOV, enTTS schemes. We propose a novel architecture based on Rainbow scheme for wearable devices, which is one of the most efficient schemes of MPKC. In order to validate our design and verify its effectiveness, an experiment is carried out by using TSMC-0.18 μm standard cell CMOS Application Specific Integrated Circuit, which shows that the executing time of Rainbow is 3.8 ms and its area is 3500 gate equivalents. The results demonstrate that our design is well suit for wearable devices.

A round-optimal lattice-based blind signature scheme for cloud services

To process rapidly growing Big Data, many organizations migrate their data and services such as e-voting and e-payment systems to the cloud. In these two systems, blind signature has become an essential cryptographic primitive since it allows the signer to sign a message without learning what he signs. Thus, it can guarantee trustworthy of Big Data. However, most blind signature schemes based on factoring and discrete logarithm problems cannot resist quantum computer attacks. The alternative blind signature schemes are based on lattice. Here, we present a round-optimal lattice-based blind signature scheme constructed on the closest vector problem using infinity norm. Firstly, our scheme is proven blind and one-more unforgeable, and is resistant to brute-force attacks, theoretical-timing attacks, and Nguyen–Regev attacks. Secondly, our scheme outperforms the RSA, the Schnorr, and the ECC blind signature schemes in terms of efficiency and security. Also, it outperforms the Rückert’s blind signature in terms of signature length, moves, and security. Finally, our scheme outperforms the Rückert’s blind signature in terms of communication and computation energy costs. Additionally, it outperforms the RSA blind signature in terms of communication energy cost.

Insecurity of a Public Proof of Cloud Storage from Lattice Assumption

Cloud storage auditing is considered as a significant service to verify the integrity of the data stored in cloud. Liu et al. have proposed a proof of storage pro- tocol with public auditing form lattice assumption, which can resist quantum computer attacks. They claim that the protocol enjoys desirable security properties, such as un- forgeability and privacy preserving. We demonstrate that any malicious cloud service provider can cheat the third party auditor and the users, through generating the valid response proof which can pass the verification even if some other data blocks are lost by accident. And the primitive data blocks maybe recovered by any curious third party auditor through solving some linearly equations. Our work can help cryptographers and engineers design and imple- ment more secure and efficient lattice-based public audit- ing scheme for the cloud storage data.

Enabling identity-based cloud storage public auditing with quantum computers resistance

With the rapid development of cloud storage technology, users choose to store their data in the cloud server remotely. Without the burden of local data storage and maintenance, users can enjoy on-demand high quality cloud storage services. Recently, lattice-based cryptography has been considered as the best choice for post-quantum cryptography, which can resist quantum computer attacks. Considering the forthcoming of the quantum computer in the near future, in this paper, we propose an efficient identity-based cloud storage public auditing scheme, which is constructed based on lattice. We prove our scheme can guarantee public verifiability, unforgeability. Moreover, our scheme can prevent the third party auditor TPA from revealing the primitive data blocks of cloud users. In particular, to achieve efficient data dynamics, by utilising index hash tables, our auditing scheme can efficiently perform dynamic operations. Efficient performance analysis demonstrates that our public auditing scheme is more efficient and more practical even in the post-quantum cryptographic era.

A post-quantum communication secure identity-based proxy-signcryption scheme

Proxy-signcryption is a variation of an ordinary signcryption scheme and has been used in many applications where the delegation of rights is quite common. In a proxy-signcryption scheme, an original signcrypter needs to delegate his signcryption capability to a proxy signcrypter to signcrypt messages on behalf of the original signcrypter. By combining the functionalities of proxy signature with identity-based signcryption, in this paper, we propose a novel identity-based proxy-signcryption scheme IBPSC from lattice assumptions in the random oracle model. Meanwhile, the security requirements of our IBPSC scheme have been analysed, and our scheme can even resist quantum computer attacks. Compared with existing IBPSC schemes, our scheme is more secure and more efficient. To the best of our knowledge, there is still no relevant IBPSC scheme based on lattice, which is an interesting stepping stone in the post-quantum cryptographic communication.

Two-party key establishment: From passive to active security without introducing new assumptions

Abstract. Key establishment protocols based on hardness assumptions, such as the discrete logarithm problem and the integer factorization problem, are vulnerable to quantum computer attacks, whereas the protocols based on other hardness assumptions, such as the conjugacy search problem and the decomposition search problem, can resist such attacks. The existing protocols based on the hardness assumptions which can resist quantum computer attacks are only passively secure. Compilers are used to convert a passively secure protocol to an actively secure protocol. Compilers involve some tools such as a signature scheme and a collision-resistant hash function. If there are only passively secure protocols but not a signature scheme based on the same assumption, then the application of existing compilers requires the use of such tools based on different assumptions. But the introduction of new tools, based on different assumptions, makes the new actively secure protocol rely on more than one hardness assumption. We offer an approach to derive an actively secure two-party protocol from a passively secure two-party protocol without introducing further hardness assumptions. This serves as a useful formal tool to transform any basic algebraic method of public key cryptography to the real world applicable cryptographic scheme.