K-XMSS and K-SPHINCS+: Enhancing Security in Next-Generation Mobile Communication and Internet Systems with Hash Based Signatures Using Korean Cryptography Algorithms

Minjoo Sim; Siwoo Eum; Gyeongju Song; Yujin Yang; Wonwoong Kim; Hwajeong Seo

doi:10.3390/s23177558

K-XMSS and K-SPHINCS⁺: Enhancing Security in Next-Generation Mobile Communication and Internet Systems with Hash Based Signatures Using Korean Cryptography Algorithms

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Aug 31;23(17):7558. doi: 10.3390/s23177558.

Authors

Minjoo Sim¹, Siwoo Eum¹, Gyeongju Song¹, Yujin Yang², Wonwoong Kim², Hwajeong Seo²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Information Computer Engineering, Hansung University, Seoul 02876, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Convergence Security, Hansung University, Seoul 02876, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

As Mobile Communication and Internet Systems (MCIS) have rapidly developed, security issues related to MCIS have become increasingly important. Therefore, the development and research of security technologies for mobile communication and internet systems are actively being conducted. Hash-Based Signature (HBS) uses a hash function to construct a digital signature scheme, where its security is guaranteed by the collision resistance of the hash function used. To provide sufficient security in the post-quantum environment, the length of hash should be satisfied for the security requirement. Modern HBS can be classified into stateful and stateless schemes. Two representative stateful and stateless HBS are eXtended Merkle Signature Scheme(XMSS) and SPHINCS+, respectively. In this paper, we propose two HBS schemes: K-XMSS and K-SPHINCS+, which replace internal hash functions of XMSS and SPHINCS+ with Korean cryptography algorithms. K-XMSS is a stateful signature, while K-SPHINCS+ is its stateless counterpart. We showcase the reference implementation of K-XMSS and K-SPHINCS+ employing Lightweight Secure Hash (LSH) and two hash functions based on block ciphers (i.e., CHAM and LEA) as the internal hash function. In addition, K-XMSS and K-SPHINCS+ using Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2) have been provided, demonstrating that they can be optimized for better performance using advanced implementation techniques than previous approaches.

Keywords: Korean cryptography algorithms; SPHINCS+; XMSS; hash based signatures; software implementations.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Institute for Information & communications Technology Promotion (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2018-0-00264, Research on Blockchain Security Technology for IoT Services, 40%) and this work was supported by Institute of Information & communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2022-0-00627, Development of Lightweight BIoT technology for Highly Constrained Devices, 40%) and this work was supported by Institute for Information & communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (, No. 2019-0-00033, Study on Quantum Security Evaluation of Cryptography based on Computational Quantum Complexity, 10%) and this work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2020R1F1A1048478, 10%).