A Lightweight Post-Quantum Authentication Framework for 5G Base Station Bootstrapping

AI Safety / AI Ethics PIAAP FLEC AI Systems and Hardware EDIO
2026年06月29日
5G网络中,用户设备(UE)与基站(BS)之间缺乏经过认证的初始引导机制,导致系统信息块(SIB)广播完全未受保护,从而为伪基站攻击、中间人窃听以及伪造的紧急告警等安全威胁敞开了大门。此前提出的各类防护方案——例如基于公钥基础设施(PKI)的证书链、基于令牌的机制以及基于身份的签名方案——要么引入的开销超出了5G对数据包尺寸的严格限制,要么不具备抗量子(Post-Quantum, PQ)安全性。直接集成美国国家标准与技术研究院(NIST)所遴选的后量子密码(PQC)算法亦不可行:ML-DSA方案需将SIB1拆分为34个分片传输,端到端延迟高达5282毫秒;而FN-DSA虽有所改进,仍需13个分片,端到端延迟最高达1920毫秒。为此,我们提出EMULSION——一种面向5G/6G基站广播认证的、基于对称密钥链的公开可验证认证框架。EMULSION是首个充分利用5G原生架构特性的框架:依托固定的SIB发送窗口、毫秒级时间同步能力,以及嵌入式SIM卡(eSIM)/通用用户识别模块(USIM)的凭证管理体系,在保持对称密钥运算效率的同时,真正实现了抗量子安全性。该框架采用类TESLA的HMAC链结构,以一种轻量级抗量子签名方案(MAYO)作为锚点,在每个周期(epoch)内仅需执行一次签名操作;整个认证信息可完整封装于单个数据包内,无需任何分片,且彻底摒弃了传统证书的传输需求。不同于所有既有方案,EMULSION可全面保护全部系统信息块(SIB1至SIB21)家族。我们在真实空口5G测试平台上对其进行了评估:相比ML-DSA,EMULSION的端到端延迟降低33倍,通信开销减少31倍;相比FN-DSA,其延迟降低12倍,通信开销减少5.4倍。我们对EMULSION的安全性给出了形式化证明,并已将其完整实现开源,供学术界与工业界开展公开测试与适配部署。
The absence of authenticated bootstrapping between User Equipments (UEs) and Base Stations (BSs) in 5G leaves System Information Block (SIB) broadcasts unprotected, enabling fake BS attacks, man-in-the-middle interception, and spoofed emergency alerts. Prior efforts such as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based certificate chains, token-based schemes, and identity-based signatures either impose overhead exceeding 5G's strict packet-size constraints or lack post-quantum (PQ) security. Direct NIST-PQC integration is infeasible: ML-DSA requires 34 fragmented SIB1 packets and up to 5,282,ms end-to-end delay, and FN-DSA still requires 13 fragments and up to 1,920,ms. We propose $\emulsion$, a symmetric chained publicly verifiable authentication framework for 5G/6G BS broadcast authentication. EMULSION is the first framework to exploit native 5G architectural features: fixed SIB transmission windows, millisecond-level time synchronization, and eSIM/USIM credential management to achieve genuine PQ security at symmetric-key efficiency. It uses a TESLA-style HMAC chain anchored by a compact PQ signature (MAYO) applied once per epoch, fitting authentication within a single packet with no fragmentation and eliminating certificate transmission entirely. Unlike all prior schemes, EMULSION protects the full SIB family (SIB1-SIB21). Evaluated on a real over-the-air 5G testbed, EMULSION achieves 33x lower end-to-end delay and 31x less communication overhead than ML-DSA, and 12x lower delay and 5.4x less overhead than FN-DSA. We formally prove the security of EMULSION and open-source its implementation for public testing and adaptation.
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