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XMSS-based Chain of Trust

17 pagesPublished: October 3, 2022

Abstract

Given that large-scale quantum computers can eventually compute discrete logarithm and integer factorization in polynomial time [44], all asymmetric cryptographic schemes will break down. Hence, replacing them becomes mandatory. For this purpose, the Na- tional Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated a standardization process for post-quantum schemes. These schemes are supposed to substitute classical cryptography in different use-cases, such as client-server authentication during the TLS handshake. How- ever, their signatures, public key sizes, and signature verification time impose difficulty, especially for resource-constrained devices. In this paper, we improve the TLS hand- shake performance relying on post-quantum signatures by combining the XMSS and the Dilithium signature schemes along the chain of certificates. We provide proof-of-concept implementation of our solution by integrating the two signature schemes in the WolfSSL library. Moreover, we evaluate the performance of our solution and establish that it re- duces the signature verification time considerably and minimizes the size of the chain of trust. We provide a security proof of the proposed chain of trust which is relies on the security of the XMSS scheme.

Keyphrases: chain of trust, dilithium, handshake protocol, post quantum cryptography, xmss

In: Ulrich Kühne and Fan Zhang (editors). Proceedings of 10th International Workshop on Security Proofs for Embedded Systems, vol 87, pages 66-82.

BibTeX entry
@inproceedings{PROOFS2021:XMSS_based_Chain_Trust,
  author    = {Soundes Marzougui and Jean-Pierre Seifert},
  title     = {XMSS-based Chain of Trust},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of 10th International Workshop on Security Proofs for Embedded Systems},
  editor    = {Ulrich Kühne and Fan Zhang},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Computing},
  volume    = {87},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2398-7340},
  url       = {/publications/paper/CfTQ},
  doi       = {10.29007/2fv1},
  pages     = {66-82},
  year      = {2022}}
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