Quantum-Secure Certificate-Less Conditional Privacy-Preserving Authentication for VANET

TL;DR

This paper introduces the first quantum-secure, certificate-less authentication scheme for VANETs that addresses key leakage and escrow issues, ensuring secure vehicle communication in the post-quantum era.

Contribution

It proposes a novel lattice-based authentication scheme that eliminates key leakage and escrow problems while maintaining efficiency, advancing security in VANETs.

Findings

The scheme is proven to be secure against quantum attacks.

Performance assessment shows it is efficient and practical.

Addresses key-escrow and master key leakage issues.

Abstract

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) marked a pronounced change in the Intelligent Transport System and Smart Cities through seamless vehicle communication to intensify safety and efficacy. However, a few authentication schemes have been devised in the literature to ensure the authenticity of the source and information in the post-quantum era. The most popular base for such construction is lattice-based cryptography. However, existing lattice-based authentication schemes fall short of addressing the potential challenges of the leakage of the master secret key and key-escrow problem. By ingeniously addressing both issues, the paper proposes the \emph{first} quantum secure authentication scheme to eliminate the flaws while maintaining the system's overall efficiency intact. Compared to the state-of-the-art schemes, the provable security and overall performance assessment highlight the suitability of the proposed approach.