# Study About the Performance of Ascon in Arduino Devices
###### Abstract  
In 2023, the Ascon cipher suite was selected as the winner of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standardization process for lightweight cryptography, and has emerged as the leading candidate for cryptographic algorithms in resource-constrained environments. This cipher suite provides authenticated encryption with associated data and hash functionality. NIST's Ascon proposal consists of two symmetric ciphers, Ascon-128 and Ascon-128a, a hash function, Ascon-HASH, an extendible output function, Ascon-XOF, and a new cipher variant, Ascon-80 pq, with increased resistance to quantum attacks. This study presents an overview of the mathematical background, security principles and key properties of the Ascon cipher suite. In addition, a comprehensive performance evaluation of Ascon on various Arduino platforms, such as Arduino DUE, Arduino Mega2560, Arduino Nano Every and Arduino Nano ESP32, is performed. A detailed comparative analysis of these implementations is also provided. Ascon; lightweight cryptography; Arduino; performance; Internet of Things +
Footnote †: journal: Applied sciences  
0000-0001-5000-0001-5000]J.S. users. For these reasons, this document includes a detailed description of each algorithm and its purpose, as well as an explanation of each of the components involved in the execution of the algorithm. This study includes the analysis of Ascon's security, presenting fundamental concepts to understand the keys of its security and some known attacks against it. Moreover, a study of Ascon's performance on four constrained devices of the Arduino family is shown. Knowing the characteristics of the execution of the reference implementation on different platforms of Ascon family can be of interest. In fact, in [6; 7; 8], the authors present different studies analyzing three cryptographic algorithms used in lightweight cryptography: AES-128, CHECK, and Ascon, but none of them specifically analyzed all the versions of the Ascon family as we have. In the present work, we have extended part of the research conducted in [9], where we examined the integration of quantum-safe lightweight cryptography schemes for classical channel authentication in quantum key distribution (QKD) for free-space quantum systems. One of the main challenges in QKD is authentication, as the security of the quantum channel relies on the ability to establish trust between communicating parties over a classical channel. While QKD enables the exchange of encryption keys with unconditional security, it still requires a classical authentication mechanism to prevent authentication spoofing attacks. Without a robust authentication scheme, an adversary could impersonate legitimate parties, intercept key exchanges, and compromise the integrity of the system. This challenge is more important in free-space QKD, where the use of mobile nodes, such as drones or satellites, introduces additional constraints on computational power, energy efficiency, and latency. Traditional authentication mechanisms, such as those based on public-key cryptography, are often computationally expensive and vulnerable to quantum attacks, making them unsuitable for future-proof security. With a focus on applications for mobile nodes and resource-constrained environments, in [9], the feasibility and effectiveness of Ascon-80 pq, integrating it into experimental QKD setups, was evaluated. Ascon-80 pq, the quantum-resistant lightweight cipher belonging to the Ascon family, offers a compelling solution by providing efficient authenticated encryption with minimal computational overhead. Its high-performance design ensures that authentication can be performed securely, even on hardware with limited resources, without significantly impacting the overall system efficiency. By demonstrating Ascon-80 pq's advantages over other costly alternatives and assessing its protocol performance, this study highlights its potential as a practical authentication mechanism for QKD, ensuring long-term security in the face of emerging quantum threats.