Evaluating Transport Layer Security 1.3 Optimization Strategies for 5G Cross-Border Roaming: A Comprehensive Security...

Area of Science:

• Telecommunications Engineering
• Network Security
• Cryptography

Background:

• Cross-border 5G roaming relies on secure N32 connections via Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP).
• Current Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 implementations present a latency-security trade-off for roaming.
• Standard TLS 1.3 optimizations compromise Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) or introduce replay vulnerabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce a novel protocol extension, Zero Round Trip Time Forward Secrecy (0-RTT FS), for secure 5G roaming.
• Address the limitations of existing TLS 1.3 optimizations in balancing performance and security.
• Enable sub-millisecond secure handshakes for international roaming services.

Main Methods:

• Developed the 0-RTT FS protocol extension.
• Conducted formal verification using ProVerif.
• Performed comprehensive performance evaluations.

Main Results:

• 0-RTT FS achieves 195.0 μs handshake latency with only 17% overhead compared to insecure 0-RTT.
• The protocol provides full security guarantees, including PFS and replay protection.
• Identified and mitigated critical replay vulnerabilities in standard TLS 1.3 optimization modes.

Conclusions:

• 0-RTT FS offers a solution to the latency-security trade-off in TLS 1.3 for 5G roaming.
• The protocol enables secure and high-performance international mobile communication.
• Provides a framework for operators to configure secure, low-latency roaming handshakes.