Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The rapid digitization of aviation communication and its dependent critical operations demand secure protocols that address domain-specific security requirements within the unique functional constraints of the aviation industry. These secure protocols must provide sufficient security against current and possible future attackers, given the inherent nature of the aviation community, that is highly complex and averse to frequent upgrades as well as its high safety and cost considerations. In this work we propose a pair of quantum-secure hybrid key exchange protocols ($\mathsf {PQAG}\hbox{-}\mathsf {KEM}$and$\mathsf {PQAG}\hbox{-}\mathsf {SIG}$) to secure communication between aircrafts in-flight and ground stations.$\mathsf {PQAG}\hbox{-}\mathsf {KEM}$leverages post-quantum and classical Key Encapsulation Mechanisms ($\mathsf {KEM}$s) to ensure the hybrid security of the protocol against classical as well as future quantum adversaries.$\mathsf {PQAG}\hbox{-}\mathsf {SIG}$, alternatively, uses quantum-safe digital signatures to achieve authentication security. We provide an implementation of both$\mathsf {PQAG}\hbox{-}\mathsf {KEM}$and$\mathsf {PQAG}\hbox{-}\mathsf {SIG}$, and compare favourably with current state-of-the-art secure avionic protocols. Finally, we provide a formal analysis of our new$\mathsf {PQAG}$protocols in a strong hybrid key exchange framework.
Authors: Benjamin Dowling, Bhagya Wimalasiri
Institutions: King's College London, University of Sheffield
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
Award: G3131517524
OpenAlex ID: W4404035179