In this study, we present the Response-Based Key Encapsulation Mechanism (R-KEM), an ephemeral key encapsulation and recovery scheme tailored for cryptographic systems in high-noise, high-jamming network environments. By adopting the Challenge–Response Pair (CRP) mechanism for both key encapsulation and authentication, R-KEM eliminates the need to store secret keys on the device, favoring on-demand key generation. By maintaining only encrypted data on the device, R-KEM significantly enhances security, ensuring that in the event of an attack, no sensitive information can be compromised. Its novel error-correcting strategy efficiently corrects 20 to 23 bits of errors promptly, eliminating the need for redundant helper data and fuzzy extractors. R-KEM is ideally suited for terminal devices with constrained computational resources. Our comprehensive performance analysis underscores R-KEM’s ability to recover error-free cryptographic keys in noisy networks, offering a superior alternative to conventional methods that struggle to maintain secure data transmission under such challenges. This work not only demonstrates R-KEM’s efficacy but also paves the way for more resilient cryptographic systems in noise-prone environments.

Secure authentication in smart device ecosystems remains a critical challenge, particularly due to the irrevocability of compromised biometric templates in server-based systems. This paper presents a post-quantum secure multi-factor authentication protocol that combines templateless 2D and 3D facial biometrics, liveness detection, and Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) to achieve robust identity assurance. The protocol exhibits zero-knowledge properties, preventing adversaries from identifying whether authentication failure is due to the biometric, password, PUF, or liveness factor. The proposed protocol utilizes advanced facial landmark detection via dlib or mediapipe, capturing multi-angle facial data and mapping it. By applying a double-masking technique and measuring distances between randomized points, stabilized facial landmarks are selected through multiple images captured during enrollment to ensure template stability. The protocol creates high-entropy cryptographic keys, securely erasing all raw biometric data and sensitive keys immediately after processing. All key cryptographic operations and challenge-response exchanges employ post-quantum algorithms, providing resistance to both classical and quantum adversaries. To further enhance reliability, advanced error-correction methods mitigate noise in biometric and PUF responses, resulting in minimal FAR and FRR that meets industrial standards and resilience against spoofing. Our experimental results demonstrate this protocol’s suitability for smart devices and IoT deployments requiring high-assurance, scalable, and quantum-resistant authentication.

This work considers the performance and feasibility of a challenge-response pair (CRP)-based key generation method integrated with multi-wavelength Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). In this design, Alice and Bob use independently derived information from the CRP mechanism to encode and recover the key without disclosing helper data. Simulations show that even when up to 40% of the data is corrupted, error-free key recovery is possible with longer response lengths. Another new advantage of this method is that eavesdropper detection is performed using only the statistics of the received quantum stream, as opposed to sacrificing a portion of the key for public comparison, as is required in other QKD schemes. The CRP mechanism and encoding scheme are explained, and the results of key recovery and error detection across various levels of data corruption are presented. The results show that according to the studied conditions, reliable key recovery and eavesdropper detection are possible without publicly comparing the key or using helper data, and it suggests that this approach can reduce classical reconciliation reliance and allow for reliable key recovery in noisy settings without extending security thresholds.

Secure authentication in smart device ecosystems remains a critical challenge, particularly due to the irrevocability of compromised biometric templates in server-based systems. This paper presents a post-quantum secure multi-factor authentication protocol that combines templateless 2D and 3D facial biometrics, liveness detection, and Physical Unclonable Functions(PUFs) to achieve robust identity assurance. The protocol exhibits zero-knowledge properties, preventing adversaries from identifying whether authentication failure is due to the biometric, password, PUF, or liveness factor. The proposed protocol utilizes advanced facial landmark detection via dlib or mediapipe, capturing multi-angle facial data and mapping it. By applying a double-masking technique and measuring distances between randomized points, stabilized facial landmarks are selected through multiple images captured during enrollment to ensure template stability. The protocol creates high-entropy cryptographic keys, securely erasing all raw biometric data and sensitive keys immediately after processing. All key cryptographic operations and challenge-response exchanges employ post-quantum algorithms, providing resistance to both classical and quantum adversaries. To further enhance reliability, advanced error-correction methods mitigate noise in biometric and PUF responses, resulting in minimal FAR and FRR that meets industrial standards and resilience against spoofing. Our experimental results demonstrate this protocol’s suitability for smart devices and IoT deployments requiring high-assurance, scalable, and quantum-resistant authentication.

In this paper we study the performance and feasibility of integrating a novel key encapsulation protocol into Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). The key encapsulation protocol includes a challenge-response pair (CRP). In our design, Alice and Bob derive identical cryptographic tables from shared challenges, allowing the ephemeral key to be encoded and recovered without disclosing helper data. Software simulations show error-free key recovery for quantum channel bit error rates up to 40% when using longer response lengths. Additionally, we designed the protocol to detect eavesdropping solely from the statistics of the received quantum stream, without sacrificing key bits for public comparison. We formalize the encoding and decoding model, analyze trade-offs between response length and latency, and report key recovery and error detection performance across different noise levels. The results indicate that this CRP-based multi-wavelength QKD protocol can reduce the reliance on classical reconciliation while preserving security in noisy settings.