3,382 research outputs found
How to reuse a one-time pad and other notes on authentication, encryption and protection of quantum information
Quantum information is a valuable resource which can be encrypted in order to
protect it. We consider the size of the one-time pad that is needed to protect
quantum information in a number of cases. The situation is dramatically
different from the classical case: we prove that one can recycle the one-time
pad without compromising security. The protocol for recycling relies on
detecting whether eavesdropping has occurred, and further relies on the fact
that information contained in the encrypted quantum state cannot be fully
accessed. We prove the security of recycling rates when authentication of
quantum states is accepted, and when it is rejected. We note that recycling
schemes respect a general law of cryptography which we prove relating the size
of private keys, sent qubits, and encrypted messages. We discuss applications
for encryption of quantum information in light of the resources needed for
teleportation. Potential uses include the protection of resources such as
entanglement and the memory of quantum computers. We also introduce another
application: encrypted secret sharing and find that one can even reuse the
private key that is used to encrypt a classical message. In a number of cases,
one finds that the amount of private key needed for authentication or
protection is smaller than in the general case.Comment: 13 pages, improved rate of recycling proved in the case of rejection
of authenticatio
Quantum secret sharing without entanglement
After analysing the main quantum secret sharing protocol based on the
entanglement states, we propose an idea to directly encode the qubit of quantum
key distributions, and then present a quantum secret sharing scheme where only
product states are employed. As entanglement, especially the inaccessable
multi-entangled state, is not necessary in the present quantum secret sharing
protocol, it may be more applicable when the number of the parties of secret
sharing is large. Its theoretic efficiency is also doubled to approach 100%.Comment: 2 tables, to appear in Phys. Lett.
Universally-composable privacy amplification from causality constraints
We consider schemes for secret key distribution which use as a resource
correlations that violate Bell inequalities. We provide the first security
proof for such schemes, according to the strongest notion of security, the so
called universally-composable security. Our security proof does not rely on the
validity of quantum mechanics, it solely relies on the impossibility of
arbitrarily-fast signaling between separate physical systems. This allows for
secret communication in situations where the participants distrust their
quantum devices.Comment: 4 page
Beyond Gisin's Theorem and its Applications: Violation of Local Realism by Two-Party Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering
We demonstrate here that for a given mixed multi-qubit state if there are at
least two observers for whom mutual Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering is
possible, i.e. each observer is able to steer the other qubits into two
different pure states by spontaneous collapses due to von Neumann type
measurements on his/her qubit, then nonexistence of local realistic models is
fully equivalent to quantum entanglement (this is not so without this
condition). This result leads to an enhanced version of Gisin's theorem
(originally: all pure entangled states violate local realism). Local realism is
violated by all mixed states with the above steering property. The new class of
states allows one e.g. to perform three party secret sharing with just pairs of
entangled qubits, instead of three qubit entanglements (which are currently
available with low fidelity). This significantly increases the feasibility of
having high performance versions of such protocols. Finally, we discuss some
possible applications.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
Using quantum key distribution for cryptographic purposes: a survey
The appealing feature of quantum key distribution (QKD), from a cryptographic
viewpoint, is the ability to prove the information-theoretic security (ITS) of
the established keys. As a key establishment primitive, QKD however does not
provide a standalone security service in its own: the secret keys established
by QKD are in general then used by a subsequent cryptographic applications for
which the requirements, the context of use and the security properties can
vary. It is therefore important, in the perspective of integrating QKD in
security infrastructures, to analyze how QKD can be combined with other
cryptographic primitives. The purpose of this survey article, which is mostly
centered on European research results, is to contribute to such an analysis. We
first review and compare the properties of the existing key establishment
techniques, QKD being one of them. We then study more specifically two generic
scenarios related to the practical use of QKD in cryptographic infrastructures:
1) using QKD as a key renewal technique for a symmetric cipher over a
point-to-point link; 2) using QKD in a network containing many users with the
objective of offering any-to-any key establishment service. We discuss the
constraints as well as the potential interest of using QKD in these contexts.
We finally give an overview of challenges relative to the development of QKD
technology that also constitute potential avenues for cryptographic research.Comment: Revised version of the SECOQC White Paper. Published in the special
issue on QKD of TCS, Theoretical Computer Science (2014), pp. 62-8
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