Abstract Hierarchical identity-based signature (HIBS) plays a core role in a large community as it significantly reduces the workload of the root private key generator. To make HIBS still available and secure in post-quantum era, constructing lattice-based schemes is a promising option. In this paper, we present an efficient HIBS scheme in polynomial rings. Although there are many lattice-based signatures proposed in recent years, to the best of our knowledge, our HIBS scheme is the first ring-based construction. In the center of our construction are two new algorithms to extend lattice trapdoors to higher dimensions, which are non-trivial and of independent interest. With these techniques, the security of the new scheme can be proved, assuming the hardness of the Ring-SIS problem. Since operations in the ring setting are much faster than those over integers and the new construction is the first ring-base HIBS scheme, our scheme is more efficient and practical in terms of computation and storage cost when comparing to the previous constructions.