Efficient Post-Quantum Cryptography Algorithms for Auto-Enrollment in Public Key Infrastructure

Abstract

The security of the digital certificates used in authenticating network devices relies on cryptographic algorithms like the RSA and ECC, which are vulnerable to quantum attacks. This study addresses the urgent need to secure the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP), widely used in PKI-based systems, by integrating post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms—Dilithium, Falcon, and SPHINCS+. The experimental results show that Dilithium2 (1312 bytes) and Falcon512 (897 bytes) offer the best performance and throughput, with Falcon512 also being the most efficient in terms of the storage consumption. This research represents the first integration of PQC algorithms into the SCEP, establishing a foundation for scalable, quantum-resilient certificate enrollment in future PKI systems.