A post-quantum lightweight mutual authentication and encryption scheme for secure UAV communications

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) field is rapidly evolving, increasing the need for effective security mechanisms to protect data in transit in resource-constrained environments. Although many solutions have been proposed to achieve the required security objectives, these traditional solutions either suffer from high computational complexity or are vulnerable to quantum computing threats, an open challenge. However, this research presents a lightweight security scheme that uses the Kyber 512 algorithm for a quantum-resistant key-exchange algorithm, followed by a Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2)-inspired mechanism for mutual authentication. Furthermore, an Ascon Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (ASCON-AEAD)-based lightweight algorithm is utilized for data encryption and verification. Additionally, the scheme is implemented in a simulation-based UAV environment to demonstrate its performance in protecting the confidentiality and integrity of MAVLink messages transferred between aircraft and the ground control station (CGS), as well as the communicated party's authenticity. Finally, the randomness of both authentication and encryption keys was evaluated using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) tests across 50 independent sessions, with a significance level of 0.01. All tests showed average p -values higher than the accepted significance level, with pass rates ranging from 96 to 100%, indicating good statistical randomness for the generated keys and supporting their security quality within the proposed protocol. In contrast, it also demonstrated a successful transfer of encrypted Micro Air Vehicle Link (MAVLink) messages. It ensured their validity only after verification of the identities of both communicating parties (i.e., mutual authentication). Furthermore, the achieved processing time averaged approximately 1.45 ms, ranging from 0.91 to 1.89 ms, which was within acceptable limits for such an environment, making this proposed solution efficient and effective.