A Dynamic Adaptive Blockchain-Enabled Post-Quantum Authentication Protocol for Secure IoT

Abstract

The rapid spreading of Internet of Things (IoT) applications have been significant challenges in achieving secure, lightweight and scalable authentication particularly due to the arising threats of quantum threats. In order to solve these issues, this paper introduces the Dynamic Adaptive Post-Quantum Elliptic Blockchain (DAPQEB) protocol which combines Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and blockchain technology to perform decentralized and tamper-proof authentication. The protocol makes use of hybrid key generation based on ECC and PQC secrets, further supported by Key Derivation Function (HKDF)-based derivation of sessions and blockchain-based attestation that is not revoked. An active adaptation scheme also contributes to resilience by modifying the cryptographic functions depending on device resources and threat intensity, tradeoffs between performance and security. Experimental simulations on simulation networks are performed using several network sizes with energy model parameters, latency and adaptive thresholds. These findings prove that DAPQEB is more effective than the existing methods in energy consumption, throughput, ratio of packet delivery, network lifetime and detection rate. Although its generation, encryption and decryption time are slightly higher, these are reasonable trade-offs with increased robustness and quantum resistance. Altogether, DAPQEB is a resource-optimized, scalable and secure authentication system that is been applied in energy-sensitive and large-scale IoT networks.