Post-Quantum Cryptography-Based Bidirectional Authentication Key Exchange Protocol and Industry Applications: A Case Study of Instant Messaging
Abstract
This study aims to enhance the bidirectional authentication capability of ML-KEM (Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism) by proposing the post-quantum cryptography-based (PQC-based) bidirectional authentication key exchange protocol. Furthermore, it introduces dual-usage certificates combining PQC-based DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm) and PQC-based KEM, which include composite schemes, catalyst schemes, and chameleon schemes. These dual-usage certificates utilize the PQC-based DSA public key and PQC-based KEM public key within the certificate to meet the requirements for bidirectional authentication and encryption, enabling the negotiation of a shared secret key. During the experimental phase, the study validates and compares key exchange message lengths and computation times under different certificate configurations. Finally, instant messaging is presented as an industry application to demonstrate the practical implementation of the proposed protocol.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.08612,
title = {Post-Quantum Cryptography-Based Bidirectional Authentication Key Exchange Protocol and Industry Applications: A Case Study of Instant Messaging},
author = {Abel C. H. Chen and James W. H. Tung and Austin B. Y. Lin and Chin-Ling Chen and Ching-Chun Chang and Chin-Chen Chang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.08612},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
This study was presented at the NIST Workshop on Guidance for KEMs and is available at the following link: https://csrc.nist.gov/csrc/media/Events/2025/workshop-on-guidance-for-kems/documents/papers/pqc-based-bidirectional.pdf