{"paper_id":"2ee89a89-17e2-4ee2-b821-584204acc385","body_text":"Lightweight Online Offline Authenticated Encryption for Secure UAV Systems | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Lightweight Online Offline Authenticated Encryption for Secure UAV Systems Asad Iqbal, Shuguang Li, Fahad Algarni, Tahir Ali Shah, wajahat akbar, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8726864/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 15 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly being used for surveillance, environmental monitoring, disaster response, and intelligent transportation systems. However, protecting their connection remains a significant issue due to open wireless channels, severe energy limits, and the requirement for low-latency computing. This paper proposes a lightweight aggregate signcryption system exclusively designed for UAV networks. The proposed technique provides cipher-text aggregation, online/offline computation, and decreased communication cost, making it ideal for UAV situations with limited bandwidth and resources. To achieve strong security guarantees with a lower computation and communication cost, the approach uses hyper-elliptic curve cryptography, which offers much smaller key sizes than elliptic curve or pairing-based systems while maintaining equivalent security strength. The approach combines signcryption, key management, and ciphertext aggregation into a single framework that enables multi-UAV message compression before transmission to the ground station. The random oracle model provides a formal reduction-based security proof that ensures confidentiality, unforgeability, and anonymity against both Type-I and Type-II adversaries. A thorough performance analysis, including computational cost, communicational overhead, and running time, shows that the proposed scheme outperforms previous systems. The experimental results indicate significant reductions in computational and communication overhead, making the proposed technique ideal forUAV-enabled edge intelligent IoT environments and confirming its effectiveness as a secure and efficient cryptographic foundation for next-generation UAV swarm communication. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Aggregate Signcryption Hyper Elliptic Curve Cipher-text Aggregation and Certificateless Cryptography. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 02 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 13 Mar, 2026 Reviews received at journal 01 Mar, 2026 Reviews received at journal 28 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 28 Feb, 2026 Reviews received at journal 26 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Feb, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Feb, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 24 Feb, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 08 Feb, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 08 Feb, 2026 First submitted to journal 08 Feb, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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