Journal Description
Cryptography
Cryptography
is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal on cryptography published bimonthly online by MDPI.
- Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, ESCI (Web of Science), dblp, and other databases.
- Journal Rank: JCR - Q2 (Computer Science, Theory and Methods) / CiteScore - Q1 (Applied Mathematics)
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 19.3 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 3.9 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2025).
- Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
- Journal Cluster of Information Systems and Technology: Analytics, Applied System Innovation, Cryptography, Data, Digital, Informatics, Information, Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy and Multimedia.
Impact Factor:
2.1 (2024);
5-Year Impact Factor:
2.2 (2024)
Latest Articles
Dynamic Asymmetric Group Key Agreement Based on SM9 Signature
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030037 (registering DOI) - 12 Jun 2026
Abstract
In 2021, the SM9 identity-based cryptographic algorithm became an ISO/IEC international standard, marking a significant advancement in China’s commercial cryptography technology and international standardization capabilities. The SM9 key exchange protocol, a component of the SM9 algorithm suite, provides secure communication by establishing a
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In 2021, the SM9 identity-based cryptographic algorithm became an ISO/IEC international standard, marking a significant advancement in China’s commercial cryptography technology and international standardization capabilities. The SM9 key exchange protocol, a component of the SM9 algorithm suite, provides secure communication by establishing a shared symmetric key between two parties. However, in a group of n users, directly applying this key exchange protocol requires each user to perform O(n) encryption operations and transmit an O(n)-sized ciphertext to ensure confidentiality, which becomes highly inefficient for large groups. To enable efficient secure group communication, we first develop a batch multi-signature algorithm based on SM9, and then we propose a dynamic asymmetric group key agreement (SMDAGKA) protocol based on this method. Our protocol reduces the required encryption operations and ciphertext size to O(1), significantly improving efficiency. Security proofs demonstrate that our scheme achieves a high level of security, and performance analysis shows that it incurs relatively lower computational overhead than related protocols.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information and Communications Security—ICICS 2025)
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Open AccessArticle
Hybrid Architecture for Protected Data Communication Inside the Private Cloud
by
Biswaranjan Senapati, Lalit Narayan Mishra, Awad Bin Naeem and Amit J. Rangari
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030036 - 2 Jun 2026
Abstract
Private cloud object stores provide infrastructure isolation but leave application-layer data exposed to insider threats and compromised credentials. This paper presents an engineering integration of an Add-Rotate-XOR (ARX) block cipher and multi-bit Least Significant Bit (LSB) steganography into an end-to-end pipeline for private
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Private cloud object stores provide infrastructure isolation but leave application-layer data exposed to insider threats and compromised credentials. This paper presents an engineering integration of an Add-Rotate-XOR (ARX) block cipher and multi-bit Least Significant Bit (LSB) steganography into an end-to-end pipeline for private MinIO object storage. The cipher, KREA v2, is a SPECK-64/128 derived ARX construction with three application-driven choices: CRC32 key whitening, byte-aligned rotations ( , ), and deterministic CTR-mode nonces. Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) trail analysis matches SPECK-64/128’s minimum-trail weights through rounds 1–4. KREA v2 ciphertext meets standard keystream-quality preconditions (NIST SP 800-22 battery, 49.98% mean avalanche, Shannon entropy 7.9992–7.9998 bits/byte across realistic XML, JSON, video, and HTTP/2 payloads). Modified LSB (MLSB) embeds 3 bits per RGB channel with an XOR watermark at 37–38 dB Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), providing standard-LSB capacity. Steganalysis uses chi-square and RS detectors plus a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) detector (Yedroudj-Net) trained on 8000 BOSSBase-1.01 cover/stego pairs; CNN area under the ROC curve is ≥0.999 against the watermarked variant. The MinIO pipeline runs at 355.1 ms (68.6% network I/O) with 100% message fidelity. The XOR watermark increases RS detectability above 75% capacity; a 200-image ablation cuts median RS detection (0.289 to 0.000) and mean (0.342 to 0.130) in a sparse-keystream variant, prioritised for follow-on full-scale evaluation. The architecture is offered as a documented engineering integration with explicit security caveats and threat-model boundaries, not as a production-hardened cryptographic primitive.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Topics in Hardware Security (2nd Edition))
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Open AccessArticle
MPC-in-the-Head Zero-Knowledge Proof for Rank Syndrome Decoding via Mixed-Field Secret Sharing
by
Xueyi Tang, Kexin Qiao, Qinghao Wu and Licheng Wang
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030035 - 29 May 2026
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Quantum computing poses significant challenges to traditional zero-knowledge proof schemes based on number-theoretic assumptions. As a result, code-based cryptography has attracted increasing attention for its resistance against quantum computing. In this paper, we study the Rank Syndrome Decoding problem (RSD) and investigate its
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Quantum computing poses significant challenges to traditional zero-knowledge proof schemes based on number-theoretic assumptions. As a result, code-based cryptography has attracted increasing attention for its resistance against quantum computing. In this paper, we study the Rank Syndrome Decoding problem (RSD) and investigate its ZK proof formulation within the MPC-in-the-Head framework. To prove the possession of a secret witness, we reformulate the secret witness as a mixed-field matrix multiplication preserving the rank constraint, and then obtain a representation that aligns naturally with the local-view paradigm of MPC-in-the-Head. Utilizing this value-to-calculation technique, we introduce the RSD relation into a ZKBoo-style (2, 3)-secret-sharing MPC-in-the-Head framework and obtain an RSD-based zero-knowledge proof scheme via mixed-field secret sharing. The resulting scheme reduces the proof size relative to generic formulations while preserving completeness, soundness, and zero-knowledge for the interactive protocol. The Fiat–Shamir non-interactive extension is analyzed only in the classical random oracle model; we do not claim QROM security for this variant.
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Open AccessArticle
A Parameterizable Research Framework for Electronic Voting Based on Cryptographic Protocols and Blockchain Audit
by
Tolegen Aidynov, Dina Satybaldina, Gulsipat Abisheva and Eldor Egamberdiyev
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030034 - 27 May 2026
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Electronic voting requires the simultaneous admission of only legitimate participants, ballot uniqueness, vote confidentiality, storage integrity, and result verifiability. Blockchain alone does not solve these problems, since ledger immutability does not guarantee anonymity, ballot correctness, or reduced trust concentration. The purpose of this
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Electronic voting requires the simultaneous admission of only legitimate participants, ballot uniqueness, vote confidentiality, storage integrity, and result verifiability. Blockchain alone does not solve these problems, since ledger immutability does not guarantee anonymity, ballot correctness, or reduced trust concentration. The purpose of this work is to develop a parameterizable research framework for electronic voting scenarios with enhanced cryptographic protection, allowing the security level to be varied according to the requirements of a voting scenario. The main contribution of the work is a parameterizable research architecture for composing and experimentally comparing electronic voting configurations with different security and computational profiles. The cryptographic and audit mechanisms integrated into this architecture include blind-signature-based anonymous authorization, encrypted ballot submission, blockchain-style audit, receipt verification, homomorphic tally publication, and threshold-supported tally artifacts. These mechanisms are not proposed as new cryptographic primitives; rather, they are integrated into a reproducible prototype to study how their combination affects verifiability, privacy support, auditability, and computational cost. Compared with basic blockchain-based voting prototypes, this architecture explicitly separates security, privacy, and verifiability profiles and makes their computational cost observable. The implemented prototype is used as an experimental platform for analyzing supported security properties, threat modeling, and computational cost estimation. The results show that authentication, anonymous token issuance, and receipt verification maintain an almost constant cost at the studied scale, while the main cryptographic burden is associated with encrypted ballot submission and threshold-supported tally publication. The scientific novelty of the work lies in constructing a parameterizable architecture that integrates several cryptographic mechanisms and a blockchain audit layer into one reproducible research prototype. At the same time, the proposed approach retains prototype-level limitations associated with the absence of a full zero-knowledge proof stack, independently deployed threshold authorities, and coercion-resistance mechanisms.
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Open AccessArticle
DPS: A Post-Quantum Proxy Signature Scheme from Dilithium for IoT Applications
by
Yuteng Wang, Ruoyu Ding, Tianrun Yu, Zhen Han, Jian Weng and Jiasi Weng
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030033 - 15 May 2026
Abstract
Proxy signatures enable the secure delegation of signing authority, which is particularly useful in resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) environments. However, most existing schemes rely on classical hardness assumptions and therefore cannot resist quantum attacks. To address the challenge, we propose a post-quantum
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Proxy signatures enable the secure delegation of signing authority, which is particularly useful in resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) environments. However, most existing schemes rely on classical hardness assumptions and therefore cannot resist quantum attacks. To address the challenge, we propose a post-quantum proxy signature scheme based on Dilithium for IoT scenarios. We first propose an asynchronous remote key generation (ARKG) scheme based on CRYSTALS-Kyber, enabling the delegator and proxy signer to generate proxy keys of Dilithium without real-time interaction. We further integrate ARKG with the Dilithium signature scheme to construct a proxy signature scheme called DPS while ensuring the unlinkability of proxy signatures. Additionally, our proposed DPS achieves post-quantum security and provides unforgeability, distinguishability, verifiability, and undeniability with formal proofs. Experimental performance evaluation shows that our scheme yields significant efficiency gains over existing quantum-safe proxy signature solutions, with 10× speedup for both the delegation and proxy signing phases, as well as a 2.4× improvement in the verification phase.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Post-Quantum Cryptography)
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Relaxation of Strict Avalanche Criterion on All SHA-256 Sub-Function Combinations
by
Riley Vaughn and Mike Borowczak
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030032 - 13 May 2026
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A cryptographic hash function should dissipate patterns, such that highly related inputs are transformed into unrelated outputs. This property, known as diffusion, has been effectively measured on SHA-256 via the Strict Avalanche Criterion (SAC) throughout the 64 rounds of compression. Additionally, variants of
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A cryptographic hash function should dissipate patterns, such that highly related inputs are transformed into unrelated outputs. This property, known as diffusion, has been effectively measured on SHA-256 via the Strict Avalanche Criterion (SAC) throughout the 64 rounds of compression. Additionally, variants of SHA-256 with individual sub-functions removed have previously been tested. In this study, the previous work is expanded; all combinations of the seven SHA-256 sub-functions are tested for SAC, throughout the 64 rounds of compression. The threshold as to whether a variant passes the SAC is calculated with the Bonferroni Method, which results in a relaxed threshold as compared to previous measures. The SAC of each sub-function variant is compared with the SAC of variants with shared sub-functions. The sub-functions , Integer Addition, Choose, and Message Scheduler are found to consistently contribute to SAC at the earliest rounds, throughout all combinations.
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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle
Q-DP-GAN: Improving EEG Data Privacy Through Quantum-Inspired Differential Privacy-Based GAN
by
Shouvik Paul and Garima Bajwa
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030031 - 11 May 2026
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Electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems pose significant privacy risks, as EEG data remain vulnerable to inference and reconstruction attacks. Conventional privacy-preserving techniques, including data anonymization, encryption, and perturbation, frequently compromise data utility or prove ineffective against advanced adversaries. To address these limitations
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Electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems pose significant privacy risks, as EEG data remain vulnerable to inference and reconstruction attacks. Conventional privacy-preserving techniques, including data anonymization, encryption, and perturbation, frequently compromise data utility or prove ineffective against advanced adversaries. To address these limitations and balance utility and privacy, we propose a quantum-inspired, differential privacy-based generative adversarial network (Q-DP-GAN). Unlike classical GANs, which lack adaptive privacy mechanisms during training, our method uses quantum-inspired stochasticity to dynamically calibrate noise and the privacy budget. The experimental results demonstrate that Q-DP-GAN is more robust to membership inference and reconstruction attacks than existing approaches. Evaluation on the widely used BCI Competition IV Datasets 2A and 2B indicates that our framework produces high-quality synthetic EEG data while maintaining utility and data confidentiality for BCI classification tasks.
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Open AccessArticle
A Hybrid Module-LWE and Hash-Based Framework for Memory-Efficient Post-Quantum Key Encapsulation
by
Elmin Marevac, Esad Kadušić, Nataša Živić, Sanela Nesimović and Christoph Ruland
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030030 - 3 May 2026
Abstract
Deploying post-quantum cryptography on highly constrained devices remains challenging due to the large key sizes and substantial storage and memory-traffic demands of leading lattice-based schemes. Although constructions such as Kyber, Dilithium, and NTRU offer strong resistance against quantum adversaries, their multi-kilobyte public keys
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Deploying post-quantum cryptography on highly constrained devices remains challenging due to the large key sizes and substantial storage and memory-traffic demands of leading lattice-based schemes. Although constructions such as Kyber, Dilithium, and NTRU offer strong resistance against quantum adversaries, their multi-kilobyte public keys and intensive memory access patterns limit practical adoption in microcontrollers, smart cards, and low-power edge environments. This work proposes a hybrid key-encapsulation mechanism that integrates a compact, seed-generated Module-LWE structure with a quantum-secure hash-based authentication layer. The design employs a small public seed to instantiate lattice matrices on demand via a lightweight pseudorandom generator and incorporates a Merkle-tree commitment to represent compressed auxiliary error information. Additional design considerations—including sparsity-aware secret keys, SIMD-friendly polynomial operations, and cache-efficient decryption paths—are intended to reduce runtime memory usage and computational overhead. The security of the proposed construction is analysed under both Module-LWE and hash-based one-way assumptions, with further consideration of constant-time execution and cache-line alignment to mitigate side-channel risks. This hybrid approach outlines a design pathway toward post-quantum key-encapsulation mechanisms suitable for deployment on memory-limited and energy-constrained platforms.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Post-Quantum Cryptography)
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Space-Efficient Secret Sharing Based on Matrix Normal Forms
by
Eckhard Pfluegel, Razi Arshad and Mark Jones
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030029 - 30 Apr 2026
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Secret sharing schemes distribute a secret among participants so that only authorised subsets can reconstruct it. In this paper, we focus on space-efficient secret sharing and show that matrix normal forms can significantly reduce share sizes while achieving computational security properties. Our scheme
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Secret sharing schemes distribute a secret among participants so that only authorised subsets can reconstruct it. In this paper, we focus on space-efficient secret sharing and show that matrix normal forms can significantly reduce share sizes while achieving computational security properties. Our scheme is implemented within an online secret sharing architecture, where authenticated public data P is maintained and shares of private data Q are issued over a secure channel. We study an existing probabilistic matrix-based approach to share size reduction and prove that the expected number of iterations of the underlying cyclic vector algorithm is small, yielding an expected polynomial runtime. We then design a novel deterministic method based on the Frobenius canonical normal form, avoiding reliance on cyclic vector techniques, and derive its runtime complexity. This yields a space-efficient secret sharing scheme that is computationally secure under a suitably defined adversary model. We have implemented our algorithm in the computer algebra system Maple as an Open Source project and provide an evaluation of its performance. Our results demonstrate that matrix normal forms can provide a suitable mathematical framework for secure and practical secret sharing.
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Open AccessArticle
A Post-Quantum End-to-End Secure Protocol for Instant Messaging Applications
by
Alfonso F. De Abiega-L’Eglisse, Kevin A. Delgado-Vargas, Humberto A. Ortega Alcocer, Gina Gallegos-García and Eliseo Sarmiento-Rosales
Cryptography 2026, 10(3), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10030028 - 23 Apr 2026
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Modern instant messaging systems require end-to-end (E2E) security guarantees while operating over server-mediated infrastructures that cannot be fully trusted. At the same time, the impending transition to post-quantum cryptography raises nontrivial challenges for the design of secure messaging protocols that preserve these guarantees.
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Modern instant messaging systems require end-to-end (E2E) security guarantees while operating over server-mediated infrastructures that cannot be fully trusted. At the same time, the impending transition to post-quantum cryptography raises nontrivial challenges for the design of secure messaging protocols that preserve these guarantees. In this work, we present the design of a post-quantum end-to-end secure protocol for instant messaging applications under an untrusted relay model. The proposed construction relies on lattice-based primitives standardized by NIST, namely ML-KEM for key establishment and ML-DSA for authentication, and follows a Double-KEM pattern combined with explicit context binding to derive an E2E session key known only to the communicating clients. The server acts solely as an authenticated relay and never gains access to plaintext messages or session keys. In addition to the protocol design, we complement the protocol description with an automated symbolic verification using ProVerif, establishing injective mutual authentication and session-key secrecy under a Dolev–Yao adversary model. Finally, we characterize the computational cost of different authentication and verification policies and evaluate the performance of the handshake on heterogeneous cloud-based architectures. The results provide practical insight into the feasibility of deploying post-quantum end-to-end secure protocols within existing instant messaging infrastructures.
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Open AccessReview
Polynomial Commitment Schemes from Classical Constructions to Post-Quantum Directions
by
Maksim Iavich, Tamari Kuchukhidze and Razvan Bocu
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020027 - 20 Apr 2026
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Polynomial commitment schemes (PCS) enable a prover to commit to a polynomial and later reveal evaluations with succinct, verifiable proofs. As critical components of modern cryptographic systems like Verkle trees and zk-SNARKs, these methods are experiencing a significant transition from classical to post-quantum
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Polynomial commitment schemes (PCS) enable a prover to commit to a polynomial and later reveal evaluations with succinct, verifiable proofs. As critical components of modern cryptographic systems like Verkle trees and zk-SNARKs, these methods are experiencing a significant transition from classical to post-quantum designs. This comprehensive research systematically compares the major scheme families to examine this progression, from pairing-based KZG and transparent Bulletproofs to lattice-based and hash-based post-quantum alternatives. We present a unified taxonomy that maps the classical-to-post-quantum transition across trust models, security assumptions, and efficiency measures after conducting a PRISMA-guided systematic review of 77 works. Our analysis reveals a fundamental trade-off between efficiency and security: classical schemes, which rely on quantum-vulnerable assumptions, provide optimal performance with constant-sized proofs, while post-quantum alternatives offer quantum resistance at the cost of larger proofs and higher computational overhead. By combining research works, we highlight recurrent problems with adaptive security, verification efficiency, and proof conciseness. We offer a specific research roadmap with prioritized short-, medium-, and long-term directions to close the performance gap between quantum-resistant and classical architectures based on our quantitative analysis. This study offers a technical reference and a strategic roadmap for constructing practical post-quantum polynomial commitments.
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Open AccessArticle
A Multiple User Cryptography Approach Using a One-Time User Key Model and a (1, n) Threshold Polynomial Secret Sharing
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Alessandro Caniglia, Felice Franchini, Stefano Galantucci, Giuseppe Pirlo and Gianfranco Semeraro
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020026 - 14 Apr 2026
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Classical approaches to cryptography exhibit several limitations when applied to scenarios involving more than two users. The One-Time User Key (OTUK) meta-cryptographic model addresses these limitations by enabling multi-user encryption that is flexible, applicable to any cryptographic algorithm, and designed for systematic deployment
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Classical approaches to cryptography exhibit several limitations when applied to scenarios involving more than two users. The One-Time User Key (OTUK) meta-cryptographic model addresses these limitations by enabling multi-user encryption that is flexible, applicable to any cryptographic algorithm, and designed for systematic deployment without compromising system security. Each user possesses an individual key from which One-Time keys are derived; these keys feed a secret-sharing function ( ) that establishes the multi-user encrypted channel. In this paper, we present a polynomial-based implementation of the function under a threshold model. The generated polynomial has roots at points corresponding to valid user keys and is mapped to the real encryption key. We provide a formal threat model, pseudocode for the complete protocol, and a detailed computational analysis across the numerical domains , , and . Furthermore, we present experimental benchmarks measuring encryption/decryption speed, scalability up to 30 users, parameter sensitivity, and a comparative evaluation against Shamir’s Secret Sharing scheme. A systematic security analysis examines partial-information attacks, derivative-root distance margins, and brute-force resistance, demonstrating that the effective security margin remains above 245 bits for configurations of up to 30 users with 256-bit keys. The proposed method offers a concrete, efficient, and secure foundation for multi-user encrypted communication in domains such as IoT, public administration, and e-health.
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Open AccessArticle
Chaos Theory with AI Analysis in IoT Network Scenarios
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Antonio Francesco Gentile and Maria Cilione
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020025 - 10 Apr 2026
Abstract
While general network dynamics have been extensively modeled using stochastic methods, the emergence of dense Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems demands a more specialized analytical framework. IoT environments are characterized by extreme non-linearity and sensitivity to initial conditions, where traditional models often fail
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While general network dynamics have been extensively modeled using stochastic methods, the emergence of dense Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems demands a more specialized analytical framework. IoT environments are characterized by extreme non-linearity and sensitivity to initial conditions, where traditional models often fail to account for chaotic latency and packet loss. This paper introduces a specialized approach that integrates Chaos Theory with the innovative paradigm of Vibe Coding—an AI-assisted development and analysis methodology that allows for the ‘encoding’ and interpretation of the dynamic ‘vibe’ or signature of network fluctuations in real-time. By categorizing network behavior into four distinct scenarios (quiescent, perturbed, attacked, and perturbed–Attacked), the proposed framework utilizes deep learning to transform chaotic signals into actionable intelligence. Our findings demonstrate that this specialized synergy between chaos analysis and Vibe Coding provides superior classification of adversarial threats, such as DoS and injection attacks, fostering intelligent native security for next-generation IoT infrastructures.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Information Security Solutions for Future and Efficient IoT, Wireless, and Localization Systems)
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Open AccessArticle
Adapting the BIKE Key Encapsulation Mechanism to Memory-Constrained IoT Devices
by
Dušan Čatloch, Peter Pekarčík and Eva Chovancová
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020024 - 10 Apr 2026
Abstract
Post-quantum cryptography represents one of the most promising areas of modern cryptography. The development in this discipline significantly accelerated after it became of interest to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). One of the important research directions in this area is
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Post-quantum cryptography represents one of the most promising areas of modern cryptography. The development in this discipline significantly accelerated after it became of interest to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). One of the important research directions in this area is the practical deployment of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms on resource-constrained devices. In this article, we investigate the possibility of deploying post-quantum cryptography on small processors with limited random access memory (RAM) capacity. These processors are commonly used in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, where the practical deployment of post-quantum algorithms remains challenging due to computational and memory constraints. We select a suitable algorithm and perform several implementation modifications that enable its execution on microcontrollers with limited memory resources.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Hardware Security)
Open AccessArticle
Moving-Skewness Preprocessing for Simple Power Analysis on Cryptosystems: Revealing Asymmetry in Leakage
by
Zhen Li, Kexin Qiang, Yiming Yang, Zongyue Wang and An Wang
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020023 - 3 Apr 2026
Abstract
In side-channel analysis, simple power analysis (SPA) is a widely used technique for recovering secret information by exploiting differences between operations in traces. However, in realistic measurement environments, SPA is often hindered by noise, temporal misalignment, and weak or transient leakage, which obscure
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In side-channel analysis, simple power analysis (SPA) is a widely used technique for recovering secret information by exploiting differences between operations in traces. However, in realistic measurement environments, SPA is often hindered by noise, temporal misalignment, and weak or transient leakage, which obscure secret-dependent features in single or very few power traces. In this paper, we provide a systematic analysis of moving-skewness-based trace preprocessing for enhancing asymmetric leakage characteristics relevant to SPA. The method computes local skewness within a moving window along the trace, transforming the original signal into a skewness trace that emphasizes distributional asymmetry while suppressing noise. Unlike conventional smoothing-based preprocessing techniques, the proposed approach preserves and can even amplify subtle leakage patterns and spike-like transient events that are often attenuated by low-pass filtering or moving-average methods. To further improve applicability under different leakage conditions, we introduce feature-driven window-selection strategies that align preprocessing parameters with various leakage characteristics. Both simulated datasets and real measurement traces collected from multiple cryptographic platforms are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. The experimental results indicate that moving-skewness preprocessing improves leakage visibility and achieves higher SPA success rates compared to commonly used preprocessing methods.
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(This article belongs to the Section Hardware Security)
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A Searchable Encryption Scheme Based on CRYSTALS-Dilithium
by
Minghui Zheng, Anqi Xiao, Shicheng Huang and Deju Kong
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020022 - 27 Mar 2026
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With the advancement in quantum computing technology, the number theory-based hard problems underlying traditional searchable encryption algorithms are now vulnerable to efficient quantum attacks. To address this challenge, this paper proposes Dilithium-PAEKS (Dilithium-Public Authenticated Encryption with Keyword Search), a searchable encryption scheme based
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With the advancement in quantum computing technology, the number theory-based hard problems underlying traditional searchable encryption algorithms are now vulnerable to efficient quantum attacks. To address this challenge, this paper proposes Dilithium-PAEKS (Dilithium-Public Authenticated Encryption with Keyword Search), a searchable encryption scheme based on the post-quantum cryptographic algorithm CRYSTALS-Dilithium. By transforming the verification relationship of digital signatures into a matching relationship between trapdoors and ciphertexts, the scheme not only meets the functional requirements of searchable encryption but also demonstrates quantum resistance. The implementation enhances algorithm efficiency through keyword-based signatures and dynamic matching testing mechanisms. The security of the scheme is defined by the MLWE and MSIS hard problems, with proofs of keyword ciphertext indistinguishability and trapdoor indistinguishability under the random oracle model. Additionally, the scheme provides strong resistance against both outside and insider keyword guessing attacks through sender–receiver binding mechanisms and trapdoor indistinguishability properties. Experimental results show that, compared to the post-quantum schemes CP-Absel and LB-FSSE, the proposed scheme demonstrates superior overall computational efficiency while maintaining stronger quantum resistance than the traditional scheme SM9-PAEKS.
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Open AccessArticle
Homomorphic ReLU with Full-Domain Bootstrapping
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Yuqun Lin, Yi Huang, Xiaomeng Tang, Jingjing Fan, Qifei Xu, Zoe-Lin Jiang, Xiaosong Zhang and Junbin Fang
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020021 - 24 Mar 2026
Abstract
Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) offers a promising solution for privacy-preserving machine learning by enabling arbitrary computations on encrypted data. However, the efficient evaluation of non-linear functions—such as the ReLU activation function over large integers—remains a major obstacle in practical deployments, primarily due to
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Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) offers a promising solution for privacy-preserving machine learning by enabling arbitrary computations on encrypted data. However, the efficient evaluation of non-linear functions—such as the ReLU activation function over large integers—remains a major obstacle in practical deployments, primarily due to high bootstrapping overhead and limited precision support in existing schemes. In this paper, we propose , a novel framework that enables efficient homomorphic ReLU evaluation over large integers (7–11 bits) via full-domain bootstrapping. Central to our approach is a signed digit decomposition algorithm, , that partitions a large integer ciphertext into signed 6-bit segments using three new low-level primitives: , , and . This decomposition preserves arithmetic consistency, avoids cross-segment carry propagation, and allows parallelized bootstrapping. By segmenting the large integer and processing each chunk independently with optimized small-integer bootstrapping, we achieve homomorphic ReLU with full-domain bootstrapping, which significantly reduces the total number of sequential bootstrapping operations required. The security of our scheme is guaranteed by TFHE. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method reduces the bootstrapping cost by an average of 28.58% compared to state-of-the-art approaches while maintaining 95.2% accuracy. With execution times ranging from 1.16 s to 1.62 s across 7–11 bit integers, our work bridges a critical gap toward a scalable and efficient homomorphic ReLU function, which is useful in privacy-preserving machine learning. Furthermore, an end-to-end encrypted inference test on a CNN model with the MNIST dataset confirms its practicality, achieving 88.85% accuracy and demonstrating a complete pipeline for privacy-preserving neural network evaluation.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information Security and Privacy—ACISP 2025)
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Securely Scaling Autonomy: The Role of Cryptography in Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs)
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Paul Rochford, William J. Buchanan, Rich Macfarlane and Madjid Tehrani
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020020 - 20 Mar 2026
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The decentralisation of autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) introduces significant challenges in terms of establishing secure communication and consensus in contested, resource-constrained environments. This research addresses these challenges by conducting a comprehensive performance evaluation of two cryptographic technologies: Messaging Layer Security (MLS) for
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The decentralisation of autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) introduces significant challenges in terms of establishing secure communication and consensus in contested, resource-constrained environments. This research addresses these challenges by conducting a comprehensive performance evaluation of two cryptographic technologies: Messaging Layer Security (MLS) for group key exchange, and threshold signatures (FROST and BLS) for decentralised consensus. Seven leading open-source libraries were methodically assessed through a series of static, network-simulated, and novel bulk-signing benchmarks to measure their computational efficiency and practical resilience. This paper confirms that MLS is a viable solution, capable of supporting the group sizes and throughput requirements of a UAS swarm. It corroborates prior work by identifying the Cisco MLSpp library as unsuitable for dynamic environments due to poorly scaling group management functions, while demonstrating that OpenMLS is a highly performant and scalable alternative. Furthermore, the findings show that operating MLS in a ‘key management’ mode offers a dramatic increase in performance and resilience, a critical trade-off for UAS operations. For consensus, the benchmarks reveal a range of compromises for developers to consider, while identifying the Zcash FROST implementation as the most effective all-around performer for sustained, high-volume use cases due to its balance of security features and efficient verification.
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Open AccessReview
A Scoping Analysis of the Literature on the Use of Hybrid Cryptographic Systems for Data Hiding in Cloud Storage
by
Luthando Mletshe, Mnoneleli Nogwina and Colin Chibaya
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020019 - 13 Mar 2026
Cited by 1
Abstract
Organizations have been moving on-premises data functionalities to cloud storage environments. The need for advanced hybrid cryptography is deemed a promising solution for securing data on cloud storage. This scoping review explores the application of hybrid cryptographic systems for data hiding in cloud
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Organizations have been moving on-premises data functionalities to cloud storage environments. The need for advanced hybrid cryptography is deemed a promising solution for securing data on cloud storage. This scoping review explores the application of hybrid cryptographic systems for data hiding in cloud storage. It focuses on identifying global research trends, technological approaches, and contextual gaps in implementation. The review systematically examines the literature from major scholarly databases to identify existing models that combine traditional and modern cryptographic techniques to enhance data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity against cloud-based security threats. Out of the 8250 eligible papers, 24 were included in the review. The findings reveal that the majority of scholarly contributions originate from Asia, averaging 87.5%, as reflected in the distribution of included articles by continent. Particularly, India and China dominate in the space, with a complete absence of studies from Africa, including South Africa. This geographical disparity underscores a significant research gap in the contextualization of hybrid cryptographic frameworks suited to Africa’s unique infrastructural and regulatory environments. The review further reveals a limited focus on the development of lightweight, scalable, and adaptable hybrid cryptographic schemes. Such approaches are essential for addressing challenges related to bandwidth limitations, computational efficiency, and regulatory compliance in developing regions. Consequently, this study contributes by establishing a comprehensive knowledge map of hybrid cryptography for cloud security, emphasizing the necessity for region-specific, context-aware frameworks. The findings provide a foundation for future investigations aimed at developing robust efficient hybrid cryptographic models that can strengthen data security in African cloud infrastructures.
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(This article belongs to the Collection Survey of Cryptographic Topics)
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Open AccessReview
Cryptographic Foundations of Pseudonymisation for Personal Data Protection
by
Konstantinos Limniotis
Cryptography 2026, 10(2), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryptography10020018 - 11 Mar 2026
Abstract
Pseudonymisation constitutes an essential technical and organisational measure for implementing personal data-protection safeguards. Its main goal is to hide identities of individuals, thus reducing data protection and privacy risks through facilitating the fulfilment of several principles such as data minimisation and security. However,
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Pseudonymisation constitutes an essential technical and organisational measure for implementing personal data-protection safeguards. Its main goal is to hide identities of individuals, thus reducing data protection and privacy risks through facilitating the fulfilment of several principles such as data minimisation and security. However, selecting and deploying appropriate pseudonymisation mechanisms in a risk-based approach, tailored to the specific data processing context, remains a non-trivial task. This survey paper aims to present especially how cryptography can be used at the service of pseudonymisation, putting emphasis not only on traditional approaches but also on advanced cryptographic techniques that have been proposed to address special pseudonymisation challenges. To this end, we systematically classify existing approaches according to a taxonomy that captures key design dimensions that are relevant to specific data-protection challenges. Finally, since the notion of pseudonymisation adopted in this work is grounded in European data-protection law, we also discuss recent legal developments, in particular the CJEU’s latest judgment, which refined the interpretation of pseudonymous data.
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(This article belongs to the Collection Survey of Cryptographic Topics)
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