The advent of large-scale quantum computing poses critical threats to classical public-key cryptography, raising urgent concerns for mission-critical infrastructures such as power systems. Existing authentication mechanisms—whether based on physical unclonable functions (PUFs), quantum key distribution (QKD), or post-quantum cryptography (PQC)—each offer unique advantages but also face limitations when deployed in isolation. This paper presents a multi-level quantum-resistant authentication methodology that systematically integrates PUF-based device identity, QKD-derived symmetric keys, and PQC-based primitives. To unify these heterogeneous sources, we design a structured session key fusion mechanism that incorporates entropy preprocessing, cross-layer validation tokens, forward-linked context binding, and dual key derivation functions (KDFs). The resulting session key is inseparably derived from all layers, eliminating single points of failure and enhancing defense against both classical and quantum adversaries. Compared with prior single-layer or loosely coupled approaches, the proposed design achieves defense-in-depth, practical scalability across edge and backbone infrastructures, and alignment with emerging cryptographic standards, providing a secure pathway for next-generation power communication systems.
The advent of large-scale quantum computing poses critical threats to classical public-key cryptography, raising urgent concerns for mission-critical infrastructures such as power systems. Existing authentication mechanisms—whether based on physical unclonable functions (PUFs), quantum key distribution (QKD), or post-quantum cryptography (PQC)—each offer unique advantages but also face limitations when deployed in isolation. This paper presents a multi-level quantum-resistant authentication methodology that systematically integrates PUF-based device identity, QKD-derived symmetric keys, and PQC-based primitives. To unify these heterogeneous sources, we design a structured session key fusion mechanism that incorporates entropy preprocessing, cross-layer validation tokens, forward-linked context binding, and dual key derivation functions (KDFs). The resulting session key is inseparably derived from all layers, eliminating single points of failure and enhancing defense against both classical and quantum adversaries. Compared with prior single-layer or loosely coupled approaches, the proposed design achieves defense-in-depth, practical scalability across edge and backbone infrastructures, and alignment with emerging cryptographic standards, providing a secure pathway for next-generation power communication systems.
The promise of scalable quantum computing is causing major upheaval in the domain of cryptography and security. In this perspective paper, we review the progress towards the realization of large-scale quantum computing. We further summarize the imminent threats towards existing cryptographic primitives. To address this challenges, there is a consolidated effort towards the standardization of new cryptographic primitives, namely post-quantum cryptography (PQC). We discuss the underlying mathematical problems that define different classes of PQC candidates, and their resistance to an adversary having access to large Quantum computer. In parallel to this thread of research, several classical cryptographic primitives have been ported to the Quantum world as well. We discuss, in that context - Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) and True Random Number Generator (TRNG). For those implementations, we take a sneak preview in the resulting implementation-related vulnerabilities.
With the rapid development of quantum computing, in response to its disruptive threats to traditional cryptosystems and the urgent demand for lightweight and highly scalable secure group communication among resource-constrained devices in large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios, this paper proposes a lightweight anonymous group authentication scheme that integrates Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs), distributed Gossip algorithms, and quantum key distribution. By exploiting the uniqueness and unclonability derived from the inherent physical characteristics of PUF hardware, the scheme fundamentally eliminates attack vectors against quantum computers without requiring devices to pre-store any secret keys in their memory, while the QKCS pre-provisions CRPs and key seeds, which is the standard enrollment procedure in PUF-based systems. Combined with information-theoretically secure quantum keys as session keys, it forms a dual protection mechanism: anti-forgery at the physical layer and anti-quantum attack at the cryptographic layer. Innovatively, the Gossip algorithm is deeply integrated with group key agreement, converting global broadcast into local iterative interactions between nodes, which effectively alleviates broadcast storms and improves the scalability and fault tolerance of the protocol. Meanwhile, a pseudonym mechanism is introduced to achieve anonymous identity protection, and a dynamic key update strategy guarantees forward and backward security when members join or leave the group. Formal verification based on BAN logic and security analysis show that the proposed protocol can resist typical attacks such as replay attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and impersonation attacks. Performance evaluations demonstrate that our scheme outperforms existing comparable schemes in terms of computational cost, communication overhead, and dynamic group management efficiency, demonstrating its potential for resource-constrained IoT environments, pending further validation on real hardware platforms.
Quantum computing poses a significant threat to classical asymmetric cryptography, which is essential for ensuring confidentiality, authentication, and key exchange in contemporary digital infrastructures. Although post-quantum cryptography (PQC) provides mechanisms that resist quantum attacks, its implementation in Internet of Things (IoT) systems is challenged by constrained resources, including limitations in computation, memory, energy, latency, and bandwidth, and the heterogeneity of devices. This paper offers a comprehensive narrative review of PQC approaches applicable to IoT, systematically organizing 30 peer-reviewed studies published between 2022 and 2026 across four layers: device, communication, distributed trust, and application. Additionally, the review examines two cross-cutting dimensions, privacy and side-channel resistance. The analysis indicates a significant prevalence of lattice-based schemes, hybrid strategies, and integrations with blockchain technology, zero-knowledge proofs, federated learning, homomorphic encryption, AI, and Zero Trust architectures. Notably, key gaps remain in side-channel evaluation, migration pathways, deployment costs, and real-world validation—issues that are particularly critical given the long lifecycles of IoT devices and the ongoing threat of “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks.
The imminent advent of quantum computing threatens the long-term security of classical public-key cryptography, creating critical challenges for resource-constrained internet of things (IoT) environments.Hybrid cryptographic frameworks combining elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) with post-quantum cryptography (PQC) primitives have emerged as a transitional solution; however, their security properties remain insufficiently validated under semi-trusted infrastructure assumptions.This paper presents a comprehensive security evaluation of a hybrid ECC-KEM authentication and key agreement framework targeting IoT deployments.Using a dual-verification methodology that integrates formal symbolic analysis with the Tamarin-Prover and practical AI-assisted testing via the APSVer tool, we identify a critical impersonation vulnerability that enables a semi-trusted third party (TTP) to reconstruct PUF-based authentication material.To mitigate this flaw, we introduce a protocol enhancement incorporating ML-DSA post-quantum digital signatures and device-isolated key derivation.Formal verification confirms that the enhanced protocol achieves mutual authentication, session key secrecy, replay resistance, and effective isolation of the TTP.Experimental performance analysis demonstrates that the proposed security improvements introduce only a 12%-15% computational overhead, preserving feasibility for constrained IoT devices.The proposed framework provides a practical, quantum-resilient authentication architecture suitable for next-generation secure IoT deployments.
Biometric authentication has become integral to digital identity systems, particularly in smart cities where it enables secure access to services across governance, transportation, and public infrastructure. Centralised architectures, though widely used, pose privacy and scalability challenges due to the aggregation of sensitive biometric data. Decentralised identity frameworks offer better data sovereignty and eliminate single points of failure but introduce new security concerns, particularly around mutual trust among distributed devices. In such environments, biometric sensors and verification agents must authenticate one another before sharing sensitive biometric data. Existing authentication schemes rely on classical public key infrastructure, which is increasingly susceptible to quantum attacks. This work addresses this gap by proposing a quantum-secure communication protocol for decentralised biometric systems, built upon an enhanced Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system. The protocol incorporates quantum-resilient authentication at both the classical and quantum layers of QKD: post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is used to secure the classical channel, while authentication qubits verify the integrity of the quantum channel. Once trust is established, QKD generates symmetric keys for encrypting biometric data in transit. Qiskit-based simulations show a key generation rate of 15 bits/sec and 89% efficiency. This layered, quantum-resilient approach offers scalable, robust authentication for next-generation smart city infrastructures.
The rapid advances in quantum computing pressure the existing essential cryptographic algorithms. In this context, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has been proposed as a quantum safe solution for key distribution. However, current QKD systems require an authenticated classical channel which relies on pre-shared symmetric keys that are manually distributed and do not guarantee the identity of the hardware that hosts them. This paper proposes a novel scheme, the Physically Unclonable Quantum Key Distribution (PU-QKD) system, to intrinsically authenticate the communicating endpoints in QKD. The PU-QKD scheme leverages classical Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) to encode the data transmission in discrete variable QKD protocols (e.g., BB84). Our scheme maintains the information-theoretic security of QKD protocols by integrating the PUF as an additional layer. Authentication is bound to hardware, providing a robust fingerprint, while lower post-processing overhead increases key rates. Additionally, the proposed scheme is resilient against state-of-the-art PUF vulnerabilities, such as modeling attacks.