Cloud-Aware Cryptographic Code Construction for Post-QuantumSecurity in Cloud-Native Microservices

Abstract

Cloud-native infrastructures now form the backbone of modern digital systems, offeringscalability and flexible deployment, But they introduce new security challenges beyondtraditional cryptographic methods. The rise of quantum computing further threatens widelyused algorithms like RSA and ECC, which remain vulnerable to quantum attacks. Most postquantumsolutions focus narrowly on standalone primitives, overlooking the distributednature of cloud-native systems. To address this, Cloud-Aware Cryptographic CodeConstruction (CAC³) method, comprise of lattice-based routines designed for containerizedexecution environments is proposed. CAC³ ensures confidentiality and integrity underconcurrent workloads while supporting distributed key generation, context-aware parameterallocation, and orchestration compatibility. CAC³ integrates post-quantum primitives directlyinto the cloud-native execution context, facilitating scalable quantum-safe cloud services. Theworking prototype was developed locally and tested remotely on the cloud server of i2k2.com,simulating multi-tenant cryptography and communication among microservices. Tenant datais encrypted and verified at the destination via orchestrated channels. Performance ismeasured in terms of key generation, encryption, decryption, signing and verification timealong with distributed key generation latency under simulated multi-tenant workloads. Thiswork forms the core cryptographic layer for future expansion with composability, adaptiveauthentication and in-transit performance evaluation over orchestrated channels. The paperprovides a unified approach to securing cloud-native infrastructures in the quantum era.