As part of a larger research project on the migration of electronic identity documents (eCards) to quantum-resistant schemes, we focus on the PACE protocol, which is at the heart of many eCard security mechanisms.

The project scope includes analysing the current state of the art in both PQC and eCards, the underlying infrastructures, challenges and possible solutions, ranging from hardware and infrastructures, scheme suitability and protocol design to a comprehensive approach for PQC migration and crypto-agility. The proposed research paves the way for securing eCards against the threat of quantum computing, enabling crypto-agility and providing building blocks for similar schemes.

The research and development conducted in this project consists of three main tasks, which are carried out in collaboration with TUD (University of Darmstadt). These tasks are:

• Developing the PAKE protocol design and draft based on PQC key encryption mechanisms (KEM) and providing a formal proof of security.
• Implementation of a prototype on suitable hardware platforms and performance benchmarks.
• Investigate physical security against side-channel analysis (SCA) and fault injection (FA) attacks and the required hardening mechanisms.