The emergence of quantum computing threatens to break widely deployed cryptographic primitives, compromising conventional authentication systems. Our work introduces a Hybrid Quantum Authentication Model (HQAM) that harnesses quantum technologies to enhance security without requiring quantum communication infrastructure. HQAM strategically integrates quantum entropy from Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs) across critical security components including digital fingerprints, dynamic nonces, and cryptographic keys while employing post-quantum cryptography as its primary configuration. The framework utilizes NIST-standardized algorithms (CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium) for quantum-resistant assurance while maintaining RSA for legacy compatibility. Formal verification using ProVerif demonstrates HQAM’s resilience against impersonation and replay attacks, while additional mechanisms enable secure credential recovery. By combining certified quantum randomness with standardized post-quantum cryptography, HQAM provides a formally verified crypto-agile framework that ensures a robust authentication in both current and quantum-threatened environments.
The emergence of quantum computing threatens to break widely deployed cryptographic primitives, compromising conventional authentication systems. Our work introduces a Hybrid Quantum Authentication Model (HQAM) that harnesses quantum technologies to enhance security without requiring quantum communication infrastructure. HQAM strategically integrates quantum entropy from Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs) across critical security components including digital fingerprints, dynamic nonces, and cryptographic keys while employing post-quantum cryptography as its primary configuration. The framework utilizes NIST-standardized algorithms (CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium) for quantum-resistant assurance while maintaining RSA for legacy compatibility. Formal verification using ProVerif demonstrates HQAM’s resilience against impersonation and replay attacks, while additional mechanisms enable secure credential recovery. By combining certified quantum randomness with standardized post-quantum cryptography, HQAM provides a formally verified crypto-agile framework that ensures a robust authentication in both current and quantum-threatened environments.
The rapid advancement of quantum computing presents a fundamental challenge to modern cryptographic security, particularly in the domain of hash functions that ensure data integrity, authentication, and blockchain security. Traditional crypto graphic hash functions such as SHA-256, SHA-3, and BLAKE2 rely on computational hardness assumptions that become obsolete in the presence of large-scale quantum computers. Shor’s algorithm can efficiently break RSA and ECC-based cryptosys tems, while Grover’s algorithm reduces the security of traditional hash functions by square root complexity, significantly weakening their preimage and collision resistance. This quantum threat necessitates the development of post-quantum secure hashing techniques that remain resilient against both classical and quantum adversaries. This paper proposes Quantum Hashing, a novel cryptographic framework that integrates quantum entanglement, lattice-based cryptography, and hybrid quantum classical hashing to construct post-quantum secure hash functions. We introduce a formal model for Quantum Collision Resistance (QCR) and provide entropy-based ran domness enhancement to ensure unpredictable hash outputs. Unlike classical hashing approaches, our framework leverages the hardness of lattice problems (e.g., Shortest Vector Problem, Learning with Errors) to withstand quantum attacks while incorpo rating Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) mechanisms to enhance entropy and key management. Furthermore, we evaluate the security of Quantum Hashing under various attack models, comparing its resistance against Grover’s search and collision attacks. We benchmark its performance against NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) final ists, including CRYSTALS-DILITHIUM, SPHINCS+, and Falcon, demonstrating that our approach offers superior resilience while maintaining computational feasibility. Additionally, we present an implementation of Quantum Hashing using Qiskit, show casing its practical applicability in quantum circuits and quantum-secure blockchain architectures. Our findings highlight that Quantum Hashing provides a scalable, entropy-efficient, and post-quantum resilient cryptographic primitive suitable for next-generation cryptographic applications. This work paves the way for secure post-quantum digital signatures, blockchain consensus mechanisms, and zero-knowledge proof systems that require tamper-resistant hashing in a quantum computing era.
Quantum computing is rapidly approaching a stage where classical cryptographic systems, particularly RSA, ECC, and Diffie–Hellman, will no longer provide adequate security for critical infrastructure. The emergence of Shor’s and Grover’s algorithms introduces unprecedented vulnerability to national cyber-defense ecosystems, underpinning power grids, transportation, military communications, and banking systems. This paper presents a unified post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) security framework integrating lattice-based primitives, hybrid key-exchange mechanisms, and secure orchestration for resource-constrained operational-technology environments. The proposed architecture leverages NIST-recommended schemes, including CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, and SPHINCS+, to ensure long-term confidentiality, integrity, and interoperability across legacy and modern control environments. A defense-in-depth trust-fabric is introduced to protect critical data flows across edge controllers, automation PLCs, substations, cloud-SCADA gateways, and defense communication systems. Performance evaluation demonstrates a 39.4% reduction in key-exchange latency, 46% faster authentication cycles, and zero-downtime cryptographic transition capability. Our findings position this framework as a practical migration blueprint supporting national PQC readiness and cyber-resilience mandates.
ABSTRACT The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses a serious threat to classical authentication mechanisms that rely on computational hardness assumptions and software-based randomness. Traditional authentication systems such as passwords, one-time passwords (OTPs), and public-key cryptography depend heavily on pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) and classical cryptographic algorithms, many of which are vulnerable to future quantum attacks. This paper proposes and analyzes a Hybrid Post-Quantum Secure Authentication system using Quantum-Generated One-Time Tokens (Q-OTT). The proposed approach combines true quantum randomness obtained from Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs) with post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms for token protection and verification. A detailed comparison between classical authentication systems and the hybrid Q-OTT approach is presented in terms of randomness, security, entropy, and quantum resistance. The study demonstrates that hybrid Q-OTT systems offer significantly enhanced security against both classical and quantum adversaries, at the cost of moderate infrastructure requirements. Keywords Post-Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Random Number Generator, One-Time Token, Authentication Systems, Quantum Security, Hybrid Authentication
As the advent of quantum computing threatens traditional cryptographic protocols, hybrid classical-quantum secure communication infrastructures have emerged as a critical frontier in cybersecurity. This paper explores the integration of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms—specifically CRYSTALS-Kyber for key encapsulation and CRYSTALS-Dilithium for digital signatures—into hybrid communication architectures designed to resist quantum-level attacks. Leveraging lattice-based cryptographic primitives, both algorithms have been selected for standardization by NIST due to their robust security and performance characteristics. This study evaluates their implementation in real-world communication stacks, assesses latency and throughput under hybrid channel configurations, and proposes a layered security architecture combining classical and quantum-resilient mechanisms. Furthermore, it examines key management, digital trust, and infrastructure scalability in a post-quantum context. Simulation results and hardware-based validations are used to determine practical deployment feasibility in critical sectors such as finance, defense, and healthcare. The findings offer a comprehensive framework for securing data in transitional computing eras, ensuring forward secrecy, and maintaining operational integrity against future adversarial quantum threats.
The emergence of quantum computing is expected to break many conventional cryptographic algorithms currently used for authentication and secure communication. Existing security mechanisms in Next Generation Networks (NGNs), including 5G, IoT, smart healthcare, and cloud-based systems, are increasingly vulnerable to future quantum attacks. This research presents a lightweight and efficient Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) based authentication framework specifically designed for next generation network environments. The proposed framework combines quantum-resistant cryptographic techniques with optimized authentication procedures to provide secure identity verification, confidential communication, and attack resistance with minimal computational complexity. The model emphasizes reduced overhead, faster authentication response, and scalability for resource-constrained devices. Security analysis shows that the framework can effectively defend against replay attacks, impersonation attacks, session hijacking, and quantum-based cryptanalytic threats. Experimental evaluation indicates that the proposed approach achieves improved security performance while maintaining low latency and reduced resource consumption, making it suitable for practical deployment in future intelligent communication networks.
Quantum computing poses a critical threat to existing cryptographic primitives, rendering current access control mechanisms in cloud-native infrastructures vulnerable to compromise. This paper introduces a comprehensive quantum-resilient access control framework specifically engineered for distributed, containerized, and zero-trust environments. The proposed system integrates post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) primitives—specifically lattice-based key encapsulation (Kyber) and digital signatures (Dilithium)—with a hybrid key exchange protocol to maintain crypto-agility and backward compatibility. We design a secure token issuance and verification process employing PQC-based authentication, ensuring resistance to both classical and quantum adversaries. A prototype implementation demonstrates that our hybrid PQC approach incurs a moderate computational overhead of approximately 10–30\% while preserving horizontal scalability and interoperability across Kubernetes clusters. Security analysis under the post-quantum adversary model confirms resistance to key compromise, replay, and forgery attacks. The results highlight that quantum-resilient access control protocols can be efficiently integrated into modern cloud infrastructures without sacrificing scalability, performance, or operational flexibility.