Eidolon: A Post-Quantum Signature Scheme Based on k-Colorability in the Age of Graph Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Cherkaoui, Asmaa, Flores, Ramon, Kahrobaei, Delaram, Wilson, Richard
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Cherkaoui, Asmaa
Flores, Ramon
Kahrobaei, Delaram
Wilson, Richard
author_facet Cherkaoui, Asmaa
Flores, Ramon
Kahrobaei, Delaram
Wilson, Richard
contents We propose Eidolon, a post-quantum signature scheme grounded on the NP-complete k-colorability problem. Our construction generalizes the Goldreich-Micali-Wigderson zero-knowledge protocol to arbitrary k >= 3, applies the Fiat-Shamir transform, and uses Merkle-tree commitments to compress signatures from O(tn) to O(t log n). We generate hard instances by planting a coloring while aiming to preserve the statistical profile of random graphs. We present an empirical security analysis of such a scheme against both classical solvers (ILP, DSatur) and a custom graph neural network (GNN) attacker. Experiments show that for n >= 60, neither approach is able to recover a valid coloring matching the planted solution, suggesting that well-engineered k-coloring instances can resist the considered classical and learning-based cryptanalytic approaches. These experiments indicate that the constructed instances resist the attacks considered in our evaluation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_02689
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Eidolon: A Post-Quantum Signature Scheme Based on k-Colorability in the Age of Graph Neural Networks
Cherkaoui, Asmaa
Flores, Ramon
Kahrobaei, Delaram
Wilson, Richard
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
94A60, 05C15, 68R10
We propose Eidolon, a post-quantum signature scheme grounded on the NP-complete k-colorability problem. Our construction generalizes the Goldreich-Micali-Wigderson zero-knowledge protocol to arbitrary k >= 3, applies the Fiat-Shamir transform, and uses Merkle-tree commitments to compress signatures from O(tn) to O(t log n). We generate hard instances by planting a coloring while aiming to preserve the statistical profile of random graphs. We present an empirical security analysis of such a scheme against both classical solvers (ILP, DSatur) and a custom graph neural network (GNN) attacker. Experiments show that for n >= 60, neither approach is able to recover a valid coloring matching the planted solution, suggesting that well-engineered k-coloring instances can resist the considered classical and learning-based cryptanalytic approaches. These experiments indicate that the constructed instances resist the attacks considered in our evaluation.
title Eidolon: A Post-Quantum Signature Scheme Based on k-Colorability in the Age of Graph Neural Networks
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
94A60, 05C15, 68R10
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02689