A Lightweight Certificateless Authenticated Key Agreement Scheme Based on Chebyshev Polynomials for the Internet of Drones

Abstract

Highlights: What are the main findings? We propose a novel and practical certificateless cryptographic scheme utilizing Chebyshev polynomials. The proposed scheme significantly reduces computational overhead compared to existing solutions. Performance evaluations and comparative analysis reveal a substantial decrease in computational costs, with our scheme requiring approximately 65% less computational effort. What is the implication of the main finding? This work fills a critical research gap by establishing a practical certificateless cryptographic scheme based on Chebyshev polynomials. Beyond this novelty, it also promotes the broader application and exploration of Chebyshev polynomials within the domain of public key cryptography. The considerable reduction in computational overhead, particularly when compared to certificateless schemes based on elliptic curve cryptography, positions our proposed solution as a highly attractive option for resource-constrained environments (e.g., the IoD). The Internet of Drones (IoD) overcomes the physical limitations of traditional ground networks with its dynamic topology and 3D spatial flexibility, playing a crucial role in various fields. However, eavesdropping and spoofing attacks in open channel environments threaten data confidentiality and integrity, posing significant challenges to IoD communication. Existing foundational schemes in IoD primarily rely on symmetric cryptography and digital certificates. Symmetric cryptography suffers from key management challenges and static characteristics, making it unsuitable for IoD’s dynamic scenarios. Meanwhile, elliptic curve-based public key cryptography is constrained by high computational complexity and certificate management costs, rendering it impractical for resource-limited IoD nodes. This paper leverages the low computational overhead of Chebyshev polynomials to address the limited computational capability of nodes, proposing a certificateless public key cryptography scheme. Through the semigroup property, it constructs a lightweight authentication and key agreement protocol with identity privacy protection, resolving the security and performance trade-off in dynamic IoD environments. Security analysis and performance tests demonstrate that the proposed scheme resists various attacks while reducing computational overhead by 65% compared to other schemes. This work not only offers a lightweight certificateless cryptographic solution for IoD systems but also advances the engineering application of Chebyshev polynomials in asymmetric cryptography.