{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T19:01:55Z","timestamp":1785438115515,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"13","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782864000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["U23A20304"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U23A20304"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["U23A20304"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U23A20304"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Department","award":["BE2023005-4"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BE2023005-4"]}]},{"award":["BE2023005-4"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BE2023005-4"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/02mkqta53","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100005693","name":"Hainan University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["S202510589043"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["S202510589043"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100005693","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["S202510589043"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["S202510589043"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03q648j11","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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\u2019s 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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26134161","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T16:50:33Z","timestamp":1782924633000},"page":"4161","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Lightweight Zero-Trust-Based Authentication Framework for UAV Systems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Xiang","family":"Qu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Cyberspace Security (School of Cryptology), Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wei","family":"Ou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Cyberspace Security (School of Cryptology), Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"},{"name":"Department of Information, Beijing City University, Beijing 100083, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Variable Supercomputer Technology Co., Ltd., Wuxi 214100, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mengxue","family":"Pang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Cyberspace Security (School of Cryptology), Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yangbo","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Cyberspace Security (School of Cryptology), Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yishan","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Cyberspace Security (School of Cryptology), Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiuling","family":"Yue","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Cyberspace Security (School of Cryptology), Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenbao","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"European Commission (2026, May 02). 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