Article Info
Feasibility of Post-Quantum Cryptography in Digital Signature Systems: From Theory to Proof of Concept
Nurul Syafiqah Norihsan, Azana Hafizah Mohd Aman, Fakrul Radzi Ab Rahim, Hazhar Ismail
Abstract
The advancement of quantum technology is increasingly pressuring the security of traditional cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and ECDSA, which are widely used in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). As a preventive measure, the digital security community is paying closer attention to post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms that are resilient against quantum-computing threats. Among the PQC algorithms approved by NIST are CRYSTALS-Dilithium and SPHINCS+, as announced during the third round of the NIST PQC selection process in 2022. Therefore, this project aims to develop a proof-of-concept (PoC) platform as a web application using Java Spring Boot, the Bouncy Castle cryptographic library, and Bootstrap. The system supports RSA, ECDSA, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, and SPHINCS+ algorithms for key pair generation, file signing, and digital signature verification. The user interface allows users to select algorithms, sign files, and quickly check the signature status. A benchmarking module is also provided to measure key generation time, signing and verification time, and signature size for each output produced by the tested algorithms. Benchmarking results demonstrate that CRYSTALS-Dilithium offers superior computational efficiency compared to legacy algorithms, achieving verification times as low as 1 ms, while SPHINCS+ presents a distinct trade-off, characterized by high signing latency and a significantly larger signature footprint of 17,088 bytes. The paper's results show that integrating PQC algorithms into digital certificate systems is technically feasible and has the potential to enhance long-term security in the post-quantum era.
keyword
RSA, ECDSA, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, SPHINCS+, PQC