A Lightweight Zero-Trust-Based Authentication Framework for UAV Systems

To address identity cloning, credential leakage, and delayed authorization in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems operating in open airspace, we propose a zero-trust authentication and authorization framework. SM9 identity-based mutual authentication establishes a traceable digital identity anchor. On-demand rotor acoustic verification then checks whether the current platform matches the registered identity. A Beta-distribution trust model converts authentication, verification, and behavioral evidence into dynamic authorization decisions. Experimental results show that the acoustic module blocks 104 of 110 spoofing samples. Under identity-cloning attacks, the attacker’s trust value decreases from about 0.97 to 0.27 and falls below the isolation threshold of 0.4. Compared with continuous acoustic authentication, on-demand triggering reduces authentication activation frequency, average inference latency, and normalized energy consumption by 86.8%, 83.6%, and 83.0%, respectively. These results indicate that the framework links identity confirmation, entity verification, and continuous authorization under resource-constrained UAV conditions.