The security of state-of-the-art Bluetooth pairing relies on Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH), which is vulnerable to quantum attacks. However, the feasibility of integrating standardized Post-Quantum Cryptographic (PQC) primitives into the controller-level Bluetooth Classic (BC) protocol stack remains an open question. This paper presents the first comprehensive evaluation of integrating a post-quantum secure key exchange for BC pairing. We analyze the impact of replacing the existing ECDH-based key establishment with NIST-standardized PQC Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs), focusing on protocol-level packetization, over-the-air transmission overhead, and execution performance in constrained hardware. Using BC’s Link Manager Protocol (LMP) and DM1 packet structure, we quantify Public Parameter Transmission (PPT) latency for classical and post-quantum schemes. We further benchmark ECDH and ML-KEM implementations on an ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller with characteristics comparable to those of constrained Bluetooth controllers. Our results show that ML-KEM is computationally feasible on such hardware, often matching or outperforming classical ECDH in execution time. However, PQC significantly increases over-the-air overhead. Under ML-KEM, PPT accounts for 60–75% of total key exchange latency, compared to less than 10% for ECDH. Code-based schemes such as HQC are shown to be impractical due to excessive memory and transmission requirements under provided hardware constraints. These findings indicate that the primary obstacle to post-quantum Bluetooth pairing is not computation but wireless packetization, reliability, and energy consumption; facilitating a safe and efficient quantum-secure migration of resource-constrained wireless communication settings.
The security of state-of-the-art Bluetooth pairing relies on Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH), which is vulnerable to quantum attacks. However, the feasibility of integrating standardized Post-Quantum Cryptographic (PQC) primitives into the controller-level Bluetooth Classic (BC) protocol stack remains an open question. This paper presents the first comprehensive evaluation of integrating a post-quantum secure key exchange for BC pairing. We analyze the impact of replacing the existing ECDH-based key establishment with NIST-standardized PQC Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs), focusing on protocol-level packetization, over-the-air transmission overhead, and execution performance in constrained hardware. Using BC’s Link Manager Protocol (LMP) and DM1 packet structure, we quantify Public Parameter Transmission (PPT) latency for classical and post-quantum schemes. We further benchmark ECDH and ML-KEM implementations on an ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller with characteristics comparable to those of constrained Bluetooth controllers. Our results show that ML-KEM is computationally feasible on such hardware, often matching or outperforming classical ECDH in execution time. However, PQC significantly increases over-the-air overhead. Under ML-KEM, PPT accounts for 60–75% of total key exchange latency, compared to less than 10% for ECDH. Code-based schemes such as HQC are shown to be impractical due to excessive memory and transmission requirements under provided hardware constraints. These findings indicate that the primary obstacle to post-quantum Bluetooth pairing is not computation but wireless packetization, reliability, and energy consumption; facilitating a safe and efficient quantum-secure migration of resource-constrained wireless communication settings.
The Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman over COSE (EDHOC) is a compact and lightweight key establishment protocol for constrained scenarios that provides end-to-end application layer security context. However, because of the vulnerability of the discrete logarithm problem to Shor’s algorithm, a quantum resistant replacement for Diffie-Hellman is required. This paper proposes an architecture to transform EDHOC into a quantum-resistant protocol, with an open-source implementation supporting various Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) schemes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) PQC standardization process. Necessary modifications to EDHOC are analyzed, integrating PQC Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs) and PQC digital signatures in a complete Post-Quantum (PQ) version of the EDHOC protocol (PQ-EDHOC). PQC operations often involve complex computations and require larger byte sizes, which can challenge resource-constrained devices designed for lightweight operation in constrained network environments. To evaluate the applicability of various PQC schemes in a realistic PQ EDHOC environment, various PQC KEM and Digital Signature combinations are assessed for execution time, energy consumption, memory usage, and network performance on an nRF52840 ARM Cortex-M4 platform with a 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks) over BLE (Bluetooth LowEnergy) network. Results indicate that NIST standardized ML-KEM emerges as the only suitable KEM choice for resource-constrained environments, while promising new signature schemes, like HAWK, show significant performance improvement over the NIST standardized ML-DSA and selected for standardization FALCON.
The emergence of quantum computing presents a critical threat to classical cryptographic schemes such as Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which underpin protocols such as TLS 1.3. This study proposes and evaluates an optimized integration of the CRYSTALS-Kyber algorithm within the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 protocol for resource-constrained IoT devices. The objective is to achieve quantum-resistant security while maintaining practical performance on embedded hardware. Using the Open Quantum Safe library and OpenSSL, the implementation is bench marked on Raspberry Pi and ARM Cortex platforms under real-world constraints. Key findings demonstrate that Kyber512 achieves a favorable balance between performance and post-quantum security, with low handshake latency, peak memory usage under 22 KB, and energy consumption as low as 0.36 mJ per handshake. A hybrid implementation combining Kyber with Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral (ECDHE) ensures backward compatibility while enabling 128-256 bit quantum-safe security. Empirical validation confirms constanttime execution, side-channel resistance (p>0.05over 100 K traces), and robust operation under packet loss. These results establish CRYSTALS-Kyber as a viable candidate for postquantum secure communication in constrained IoT environments.
Quantum computing poses a significant threat to Internet of Things (IoT) communications that rely on classical cryptographic algorithms such as RSA, Diffie–Hellman, and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). These algorithms are vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm, making long-term data security uncertain, particularly for IoT devices with extended operational lifespans. Post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms offer resistance to quantum attacks; however, their deployment on resource-constrained IoT devices remains challenging due to limitations in processing power, memory, and energy consumption. This study benchmarks seven Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs) ML-KEM, Kyber, NTRU, BIKE, Classic McEliece, FrodoKEM, and sntrup761 across key generation, encapsulation, and decapsulation operations. Experiments were conducted using the liboqs library in a virtualized Linux environment running WSL2 to simulate constrained computing conditions. Results revealed substantial performance differences among the algorithms. ML-KEM-512 achieved the best overall performance, completing all operations in under 14 µs, while Kyber-512 showed similar efficiency. NTRU provided the fastest encapsulation but incurred significantly higher key-generation costs. BIKE, FrodoKEM, and Classic McEliece exhibited execution times unsuitable for real-time IoT applications. Overall, lattice-based schemes, particularly ML-KEM and Kyber, emerged as the most practical PQC solutions for resource-constrained IoT environments. The findings also demonstrate the usefulness of virtualized benchmarking for deployment planning.
This paper evaluates the performance impact of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) integration into critical wireless communication protocols. With the rapid advances in quantum computing, conventional public-key cryptographic standards such as RSA and ECC face imminent vulnerability. To address this security challenge, we analyze lattice-based algorithms—specifically ML-KEM (formerly CRYSTALS-Kyber)—when deployed over constrained wireless protocol architectures. Our experimental results measure latency, handshake completion times, and computational overhead compared to classical ECC-256 standards. The findings demonstrate that while ML-KEM increases packet payload sizes, it achieves acceptable performance trade-offs, providing a secure cryptographic foundation for next-generation wireless communications without significantly degrading real-time protocol efficiency.
Traditional public-key cryptography algorithms, such as Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), are vulnerable to quantum computing attacks. More critically, security protocols based on these algorithms are exposed to the “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” threat, an ongoing risk that emphasizes the urgency of transitioning to post-quantum cryptography. This transition presents a significant challenge for lightweight security protocols, such as Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman over COSE (EDHOC), which are designed for IoT environments. To address this, a PQ/T hybrid key exchange construction for EDHOC is proposed, combining post-quantum mechanisms alongside traditional algorithms to mitigate future quantum threats while remaining secure against current threats using well-established classical cryptography. The scheme is evaluated on a CortexM4 processor, demonstrating the best performance with ML-KEM-512, with a slight increase in processing time, limited RAM overhead, and a roughly sevenfold increase in message size. Despite these trade-offs, the hybrid construction remains practical and represents a viable option for enhancing EDHOC security in anticipation of the post-quantum era in constrained environments.
The advent of quantum computing poses a significant threat to conventional public-key cryptographic systems, particularly resource-constrained mobile and cyber-physical environments. To address this challenge, this study proposes an implementation-oriented unified hybrid key derivation framework that integrates the Elliptic Curve Diffie–Hellman Ephemeral (ECDHE-P256) and post-quantum ML-KEM-768 algorithm for quantum-resilient secure communication. The proposed approach combines independently generated classical and post-quantum shared secrets through a lightweight mixing step followed by HKDF-SHA256 extraction and expansion to derive a unified 256-bit session key. This design preserves forward secrecy while enhancing resilience against quantum adversaries without requiring substantial modifications to the existing communication infrastructures. The framework was implemented on a heterogeneous testbed consisting of an x86_64 client and ARM64-based Android device. Experimental evaluations were conducted across 27 test configurations under three network latency conditions (50, 150, and 500 ms) using payload sizes of 64, 1024, and 10240 KB. Each configuration was executed for 1000 iterations to ensure statistically reliable measurements. The results demonstrate that, compared with standalone ECDHE-P256 and standalone ML-KEM-768, the proposed hybrid framework introduces only minimal computational overhead while maintaining stable resource utilization. Furthermore, network latency contributes more significantly to end-to-end communication delay than cryptographic processing overhead, indicating that the integration of classical and post-quantum cryptographic mechanisms does not constitute a major performance bottleneck. Overall, the proposed implementation-oriented framework provides a practical and lightweight transition strategy to quantum-resilient secure communication in heterogeneous mobile, IoT, and cyber-physical environments.