Implementation and transition to post-quantum cryptography of the Minimal IKE protocol

TL;DR

This paper introduces Colibri, an efficient implementation of the lightweight Minimal IKE protocol, and extends it to a post-quantum version, demonstrating its suitability for quantum-resistant VPNs with maintained performance.

Contribution

The paper presents Colibri, an open-source implementation of Minimal IKE, and develops a post-quantum variant, showing its practical efficiency and readiness for quantum-resistant applications.

Findings

Colibri enables quantitative assessment of Minimal IKE's lightness.

Post-quantum Minimal IKE maintains excellent performance.

Protocol is suitable for pervasive, quantum-resistant VPNs.

Abstract

This paper concerns the Minimal Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol, which has received little attention to date, despite its potential to make the best-known IKE protocol sufficiently lightweight to be also applied in contexts where it is currently prohibitive, due to its large footprint. First, we introduce and describe Colibri, an efficient, open-source implementation of the Minimal IKE protocol, which allows us to quantitatively assess its real advantages in terms of lightness. Then we introduce a post-quantum variant of the Minimal IKE protocol, which is essential to make it contemporary, and assess it through Colibri. We demonstrate that the protocol performance remains excellent even in such a more challenging context, making it suitable for deploying pervasive and quantum-resistant virtual private networks.