Mutual Compact Hybrid Signature for Quantum-Secure Embedded Web Server Communication in Smart Grid Devices

초록

Smart grid devices, such as solar inverters and smart meters, are increasingly equipped with embedded web servers for easy and efficient device configuration, monitoring, and maintenance with encrypted communication. However, most embedded web servers use self-signed digital certificates, which is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks due to the absence of a centralized trust chain. In addition to classical threats, the advancement of quantum computing introduces new threats from quantum adversaries capable of breaking classical public-key cryptography algorithms which are currently used in smart grid devices. To address two significant issues together, this paper proposes a mutual compact hybrid signature scheme, combining classical and post-quantum cryptographic algorithms for future-proof signature and certificate of the embedded web servers in the smart grid devices. By considering mutual TLS (mTLS) in the embedded web server communication, MITM attacks can be mitigated. The proposed method is validated by experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed compact hybrid signature can enhance both the scalability and security of the embedded web server communications for smart grid devices against both MITM and quantum adversaries, providing a practical and quantum-resistant solution for resource-constrained environments. © 2025 IEEE.

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