IEEE INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS · IC25-009-01 · CONTRIBUTION DOCUMENT

Placing Trust So That No Single Hidden Foundation Unlocks the System
Submitted to: A Technical Reference Architecture Framework for an Open 6G Device Ecosystem

Version 0.9 | June 2026 | For IC Activity Review

Abstract. Authentication and routing in the open 6G device ecosystem are being designed around several trust roots of different nature: physical presence (Presence Protocol, P-AUTH), hardware signature (the Path Quality Tag signed by a trusted execution environment), and public visibility (the Accountability Chain Protocol). Each root is chosen so that forging it is expensive. This contribution addresses a complementary and so-far implicit requirement: that compromising any single root must not unlock the system. We show that root heterogeneity by nature is necessary but not sufficient, and that the true determinant of attack cost is the cheapest shared hidden foundation – a coupling factor common to several roots (a shared die, power or clock network, the registration moment, the quorum mechanism, or a single vendor). When roots are positively correlated through such a foundation, a k-of-n quorum is provably weaker than one strong root. We propose P-INDEP: a normative principle requiring independence of trust roots by foundation, not merely by nature, together with proactive independence auditing of those roots.

Keywords: 6G device ecosystem, trust roots, common-cause failure, coupling factors, threshold authentication, independence auditing, Presence Protocol, ACP, IEEE IC25-009-0