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IEEE Access

qTrustNet Virtual Private Network (VPN): Enhancing Security in the Quantum Era

Hyoungsub Shim, Bongho Kang, Haejung Im, Duhyun Jeon, Seok‐min Kim

Published Jan 1, 2025• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper introduces qTrustNet VPN, a next-generation Virtual Private Network (VPN) designed to enhance security in the quantum era. As traditional encryption methods face obsolescence due to the advent of quantum computing, there is an urgent need for more robust security solutions. qTrustNet VPN addresses this need by ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of data transmission through the WireGuard protocol, known for its simplicity and high performance. At the core of qTrustNet VPN’s enhanced security is the integration of a Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithm, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This PQC algorithm is designed to withstand the decryption capabilities of quantum computers, thus providing long-term security. To further bolster security, the encryption key of the PQC algorithm is protected using Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) technology. PUFs offer a hardware-based security mechanism that is resistant to cloning and tampering, ensuring that the encryption keys remain secure against both classical and quantum attacks. This innovative combination of WireGuard protocol, PQC algorithms, and PUF technology creates a VPN system with significantly improved security features. To validate its effectiveness, the performance of the proposed qTrustNet VPN was rigorously evaluated in a 10GbE NIC network environment. The results demonstrated a remarkable throughput of up to 8.5 Gbps, ensuring high-speed data transmission capabilities. Additionally, the latency was measured at 1ms or less, highlighting the system’s efficiency in maintaining low-latency communication. In summary, qTrustNet VPN represents a significant advancement in VPN technology, offering robust security features tailored for the quantum era while maintaining high performance and low latency. This paper details the design, implementation, and performance evaluation of qTrustNet VPN, showcasing its potential to secure data transmission against emerging quantum threats.

DOI
10.1109/access.2025.3530985

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This paper introduces qTrustNet VPN, a next-generation Virtual Private Network (VPN) designed to enhance security in the quantum era. As traditional encryption methods face obsolescence due to the advent of quantum computing, there is an urgent need for more robust security solutions. qTrustNet VPN addresses this need by ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of data transmission through the WireGuard protocol, known for its simplicity and high performance. At the core of qTrustNet VPN’s enhanced security is the integration of a Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithm, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This PQC algorithm is designed to withstand the decryption capabilities of quantum computers, thus providing long-term security. To further bolster security, the encryption key of the PQC algorithm is protected using Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) technology. PUFs offer a hardware-based security mechanism that is resistant to cloning and tampering, ensuring that the encryption keys remain secure against both classical and quantum attacks. This innovative combination of WireGuard protocol, PQC algorithms, and PUF technology creates a VPN system with significantly improved security features. To validate its effectiveness, the performance of the proposed qTrustNet VPN was rigorously evaluated in a 10GbE NIC network environment. The results demonstrated a remarkable throughput of up to 8.5 Gbps, ensuring high-speed data transmission capabilities. Additionally, the latency was measured at 1ms or less, highlighting the system’s efficiency in maintaining low-latency communication. In summary, qTrustNet VPN represents a significant advancement in VPN technology, offering robust security features tailored for the quantum era while maintaining high performance and low latency. This paper details the design, implementation, and performance evaluation of qTrustNet VPN, showcasing its potential to secure data transmission against emerging quantum threats.
This paper introduces qTrustNet VPN, a next-generation Virtual Private Network (VPN) designed to enhance security in the quantum era. With the rapid advancement of quantum computing, traditional encryption methods face obsolescence, necessitating more robust security solutions. qTrustNet VPN addresses this need by integrating the WireGuard protocol, known for its simplicity and high performance, with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These PQC algorithms are designed to withstand the decryption capabilities of quantum computers, providing long-term security.
The emergence of quantum computing significantly threatens these conventional VPN security mechanisms, such as AES-256 and RSA, since they are vulnerable to quantum algorithms like Shor's. In this regard, a quantum-secure VPN framework using PQC was developed based on the FIPS-203 standards. The provided solution employs lattice-based schemes for secure key exchange and robust encryption with CRYSTALS-Kyber. It offers very strong protection against quantum-level threats while considering real-world performance. Tests performed can receive up to 7.8 Gbps with latency under 2 ms, bringing better scalability compared to conventional systems. It is cross-platform and has a real-time monitoring capability that will go well for both academic and enterprise situations by providing a resilient and scalable approach in VPN security in the quantum era.
The fast development of quantum computing presents a great threat to the security of classical cryptographic algorithms that support secure communication systems like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). RSA and ECC algorithms that are commonly employed in key exchange and digital authentication can fall victim to quantum attacks from Shor’s and Grover’s algorithms. This study introduces the design and deployment of a post-quantum-resistant VPN protocol using post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) primitives, i.e., Kyber for key encapsulation and Dilithium for digital signatures. The suggested structure is incorporated into OpenVPN via the Open Quantum Safe (OQS) framework for uninterrupted post-quantum compatibility. The protocol is also capable of supporting hybrid cryptography for smooth transition from classical to post-quantum systems. Performance benchmarks are performed over metrics like handshake latency, tunnel throughput, CPU usage, and certificate overhead. The findings illustrate that post-quantum secure VPNs are not only achievable but also feasible for near-future deployment. This work adds a future-proof framework to improve the resilience of secure communications in the post-quantum era with a focus on scalability, crypto-agility, and real-world implementation readiness.
The advent of cryptographically relevant quantum computers poses an existential threat to current public-key cryptographic systems (RSA, ECC) widely used in digital communication protocols such as TLS, IPsec, VPNs, and secure messaging. Traditional systems face risks from "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" attacks, compromising long-term confidentiality of sensitive data in finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure. This paper proposes Quantum Shield, a comprehensive post-quantum secure framework for next-generation digital communication. It integrates NIST-standardized post-quantum algorithms (ML-KEM for key encapsulation, ML-DSA and SLH-DSA for digital signatures) with hybrid crypto-agile designs, hardware acceleration support, and role-based access controls. The system ensures quantum-resistant key establishment, authentication, and end-to-end encryption while maintaining low latency and high throughput. Experimental evaluation on simulated network traffic demonstrates acceptable performance overhead, enhanced resistance to quantum attacks, improved traceability, and secure multi-party coordination. Quantum Shield bridges the gap between classical and quantum-safe infrastructures, fostering trust and compliance in an era of quantum threats.
The current VPN systems that use Classical Cryptography are becoming increasingly vulnerable to attacks on Quantum Computers. This paper examines the creation and implementation of a Quantum-Safe VPN solution that incorporates Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) via the Kyber 512 algorithm. The proposal includes a practical client/server implementation using WireGuard as the tunneling protocol and Tailscale for connectivity with an additional level of protection enabling the use of PQC for key exchange via the liboqs library. Selected performance metrics were determined (latency, handshake duration, CPU utilization, throughput) and compared with those of the Classical VPNs. The findings indicate that while PQC will add extra processing overhead (in particular, the Handshake process), it provides a significantly stable and secure channel for communications. Although throughput was less than with Classical VPNs, and CPU usage was increased, the PQC enabled VPN was found to provide acceptable reliability and produce zero packet losses. The results of this study have proven that integration of PQC in a VPN is achievable in real world applications and demonstrates the necessity for secure methods in future networking.
The rise of quantum computing poses significant risks to classical cryptographic algorithms, especially those used in digital signatures within Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). This paper proposes a hybrid cryptographic framework for IPsec VPNs that combines traditional digital signatures with post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) techniques to enhance security against both conventional and quantum threats. Our method introduces a dual-signature scheme integrated into the IKEv2 protocol, verified using formal methods via the Tamarin Prover to ensure robustness. We further evaluate performance using a modified StrongSwan implementation under realistic network conditions. Results show that while hybrid signatures introduce modest overhead, they provide a viable and forward-compatible solution for securing VPNs in the post-quantum era.