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International Conference on Smart Electronics and Communication Systems (ISENSE)

A Demonstration of Secure Satellite Communication Using Post Quantum Cryptography

Rahul Barnwal, Avinash S Vaidya, Srujan Maram, Chandini Surana, G Y Sai Karteek, Radha Krishna Kavuluru

Published Dec 6, 2024• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In the rapidly evolving field of satellite technology, ensuring secure transmission of telemetry data has become increasingly critical. Traditional encryption methods, such as AES, rely on static keys, which pose significant risks if compromised, allowing attackers to decrypt past and future communications. This paper addresses the shortcomings of traditional method by proposing a session-based encryption approach using CRYSTALS Kyber, a post-quantum cryptography technique. Our method enhances security by generating unique session keys for each satellite and ground station communication window, mitigating the impact of potential key exposure. Through the implementation of this approach, which includes the use of a quantum random number generator (QRNG) for key generation, we demonstrate secure end-to-end encryption and decryption of satellite telemetry data. This approach not only fortifies current security measures but also ensures resilience against future quantum computing threats, providing a robust solution for the secure transmission of satellite data in the quantum era.

DOI
10.1109/isense63713.2024.10872215

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In the rapidly evolving field of satellite technology, ensuring secure transmission of telemetry data has become increasingly critical. Traditional encryption methods, such as AES, rely on static keys, which pose significant risks if compromised, allowing attackers to decrypt past and future communications. This paper addresses the shortcomings of traditional method by proposing a session-based encryption approach using CRYSTALS Kyber, a post-quantum cryptography technique. Our method enhances security by generating unique session keys for each satellite and ground station communication window, mitigating the impact of potential key exposure. Through the implementation of this approach, which includes the use of a quantum random number generator (QRNG) for key generation, we demonstrate secure end-to-end encryption and decryption of satellite telemetry data. This approach not only fortifies current security measures but also ensures resilience against future quantum computing threats, providing a robust solution for the secure transmission of satellite data in the quantum era.
This paper presents a U.S.-focused design and evaluation of CRYSTALS-Kyber-based encryption protocols tailored for secure satellite-to-ground communications. With the emerging threat posed by quantum computing to traditional public-key cryptography, the integration of post-quantum encryption schemes such as Kyber has become critical for safeguarding space-based assets. The study evaluates the Kyber protocol in simulated orbital conditions, measuring handshake efficiency, encrypted throughput, packet retransmission resilience, CPU and memory consumption, session recovery latency, and scalability. Kyber demonstrated superior performance in reconnection speed, loss recovery, and session scalability compared to RSA and ECC baselines, while maintaining acceptable computational loads for deployment on both ground stations and small satellite platforms. The protocol’s resilience to variable latency and degraded signal environments confirms its suitability for low-Earth orbit (LEO) communication profiles. Results support phased deployment in U.S. aerospace networks, beginning with mission-critical command links. This work contributes new empirical insights into the readiness of post-quantum cryptography for real-world space applications.
With the rapid advancement of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, ensuring the security of satellite-to-ground communication has become a critical concern. Traditional cryptographic techniques, while effective against classical attacks, face increasing threats from quantum computing. This paper proposes a quantum key secure transmission method tailored for LEO satellite-ground communication scenarios. The method integrates quantum key distribution (QKD) with dynamic channel estimation and orbital mobility prediction to support secure and low-latency key handshakes between satellites and ground stations. A hybrid encryption strategy is introduced, where QKD-generated keys are used to refresh symmetric session keys in real time, significantly enhancing resistance to eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method ensures stable key distribution under Doppler-shifted and intermittent link conditions, achieving improved secrecy capacity and resilience against quantum-level adversaries. This work provides a viable and scalable quantum-safe communication solution for future secure satellite networks.
ABSTRACT Quantum computing poses a looming threat to the cryptographic primitives that secure today's satellite communications. In response, post‐quantum cryptography (PQC) has emerged to protect data against future quantum‐enabled adversaries. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of lattice‐based PQC methods for secure satellite communication in the post‐quantum era. We examine the performance and security of leading lattice‐based schemes—including encryption/key‐establishment algorithms like CRYSTALS‐Kyber and NTRU, and digital signature schemes like CRYSTALS‐Dilithium and FALCON—in the context of satellite systems. Real‐world benchmark data from peer‐reviewed sources are used to evaluate computational efficiency, bandwidth overhead, memory footprint, and energy consumption of these schemes on resource‐constrained satellite hardware. We compare lattice‐based approaches with classical RSA/ECC and alternative post‐quantum techniques (hash‐based signatures, code‐based encryption), highlighting the favorable trade‐offs that have led to lattice‐based algorithms becoming primary candidates for standardization. Security analysis is presented to explain the hardness assumptions (e.g., Learning With Errors and NTRU problems) that underpin lattice cryptography, and to assess known cryptanalytic results, resistance to quantum attacks, and remaining security margins. We also discuss practical considerations for deploying lattice‐based cryptography on satellites, including integration into existing communication protocols, potential need for hardware acceleration, and strategies for cryptographic agility in long‐lived space assets. The results show that lattice‐based PQC can be feasibly implemented in satellites with acceptable performance impact, providing strong security against quantum threats and a viable path to future‐proof the confidentiality and authenticity of satellite communications.
With the advancements in satellite communication, there arises a demand for the secure transmission of satellite and remote sensing images to the ground monitoring stations which has significant challenges due to the increased threat of cyber-attacks and the sensitive nature of those images. Existing classical cryptography methods fail to meet the advanced security demands. Thus, there arises a need for advanced cryptography techniques which ensure secure transmission of data in satellite communication. Recent advancements in quantum computing and research have shown that leveraging quantum mechanics and principles enhances security. We propose a novel quantum-based image encryption technique for securing satellite and remote sensing images during transmission named QCrypt. QCrypt utilizes the power of quantum chaotic maps, classic chaotic maps, and DNA encoding techniques to ensure the security of the images. QCrypt has been tested using a remote sensing image dataset and achieved increased performance in terms of resistance to histogram analysis, differential attacks, and chosen- plaintext attacks compared to traditional encryption methods. Our approach addresses the critical need for secure satellite data transmission and the use of quantum-based encryption to meet security demands.
Secure communication is becoming increasingly challenging as computational power grows, cyberattacks evolve, and traditional cryptographic methods show their limitations. Widely used public-key algorithms like RSA and ECC, which have protected digital communication for decades, are now vulnerable in the face of advancing quantum computing. Quantum algorithms such as Shor's algorithm can break these classical systems, posing a serious threat to data that needs long-term protection. This growing risk has led to the development of post-quantum cryptography, a new generation of algorithms designed to remain secure against both classical and quantum attacks. Among the different approaches, lattice-based cryptography stands out due to its strong security foundations and efficient performance. In this work, we implement a post-quantum cryptographic method using the CRYSTALS-Kyber algorithm on Raspberry Pi devices. By using two Raspberry Pi modules to securely exchange keys and perform text encryption and decryption, the project demonstrates that quantum-resistant communication can be achieved even on low-cost embedded hardware.
Quantum computing poses a threat to modern encryption algorithms such as Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) with the Shor’s algorithm, cutting cracking time from millions of years to just days. Attackers commonly use an attack known as “Store Now, Decrypt Later”. This form of attack banks on the future of quantum computing. Many post-quantum algorithms have been created to counteract the imminent attack should data leak. CRYSTALS-Kyber is one of the most secure post quantum algorithms that has been approved by the NIST. Using the CRYSTALS-Kyber as a base for a cryptographic scheme, a security framework can be developed with encryption and sessions in mind. Keeping virtual sessions as limited as possible reduces the number of openings an attacker may have to attempt to steal data. Despite the quantum threat, it is likely that a robust system is designed to prevent an attack from the present and a future threat. The system proposed will integrate session key managers along with strong encryption to ensure attackers cannot easily store the data now, nor will the data that they steal be easily cracked.