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arXiv:1102.3366 · QP-PQ, quantum probability and white noise analysis

MULTIPLE-PHOTON ABSORPTION ATTACK ON ENTANGLEMENT-BASED QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION PROTOCOLS

Guillaume Adenier, N. WATANABE, Irina Basieva, Andrei Yu. Khrennikov

Published Mar 1, 2013• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In elaborating on the multiple-photon absorption attack on Ekert protocol proposed in arXiv:1011.4740, we show that it can be used in other entanglement-based protocols, in particular the BBM92 protocol. In this attack, the eavesdropper (Eve) is assumed to be in control of the source, and she sends pulses correlated in polarization (but not entangled) containing several photons at frequencies for which only multiple-photon absorptions are possible in Alice's and Bob's detectors. Whenever the photons stemming from one pulse are dispatched in such a way that the number of photons is insufficient to trigger a multiple-photon absorption in either channel, the pulse remains undetected. We show that this simple feature is enough to reproduce the type of statistics on the detected pulses that are considered as indicating a secure quantum key distribution, even though the source is actually a mixture of separable states. The violation of Bell inequalities measured by Alice and Bob increases with the order of the multiple-photon absorption that Eve can drive into their detectors, while the measured quantum bit error rate decreases as a function of the same variable. We show that the attack can be successful even in the simplest case of a two-photon absorption or three-photon absorption attack, and we discuss possible countermeasures, in particular the use of a fair sampling test.

DOI
10.1142/9789814460026_0014

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In elaborating on the multiple-photon absorption attack on Ekert protocol proposed in arXiv:1011.4740, we show that it can be used in other entanglement-based protocols, in particular the BBM92 protocol. In this attack, the eavesdropper (Eve) is assumed to be in control of the source, and she sends pulses correlated in polarization (but not entangled) containing several photons at frequencies for which only multiple-photon absorptions are possible in Alice's and Bob's detectors. Whenever the photons stemming from one pulse are dispatched in such a way that the number of photons is insufficient to trigger a multiple-photon absorption in either channel, the pulse remains undetected. We show that this simple feature is enough to reproduce the type of statistics on the detected pulses that are considered as indicating a secure quantum key distribution, even though the source is actually a mixture of separable states. The violation of Bell inequalities measured by Alice and Bob increases with the order of the multiple-photon absorption that Eve can drive into their detectors, while the measured quantum bit error rate decreases as a function of the same variable. We show that the attack can be successful even in the simplest case of a two-photon absorption or three-photon absorption attack, and we discuss possible countermeasures, in particular the use of a fair sampling test.
We propose a new type of attack on Ekert protocol in which, rather surprisingly, Eve drives a violation of Bell inequalities in Alice's and Bob's detectors with a mixture of separable states. She does so by sending correlated pulses containing several photons at frequencies where only multiple-photon absorptions are possible in their detectors. Whenever the photons stemming from a same pulse are dispatched in such a way that the number of photons is insufficient to trigger a multiple-photon absorption in either channel, the pulse remains undetected. We show that this simple feature leads to violations of Bell inequalities that can match closely those predicted for entangled states, even in the simplest cases of two-photon and three-photon absorptions.
We propose a double blinding-attack on entangled-based quantum key distribution protocols. The principle of the attack is the same as in existing blinding attack except that instead of blinding the detectors on one side only, Eve is blinding the detectors of both Alice and Bob. In the BBM92 protocol, the attack allows Eve to get a full knowledge of the key and remain undetected even if Alice and Bob are using 100% efficient detectors. The attack can be easily extended to Ekert protocol, with an efficiency as high as 85.3%.
Cryptanalysis is an important branch in the study of cryptography, including both the classical cryptography and the quantum one. In this paper we analyze the security of two three-party quantum key distribution protocols (QKDPs) proposed recently, and point out that they are susceptible to a simple and effective attack, i.e., the dense-coding attack. It is shown that the eavesdropper Eve can totally obtain the session key by sending entangled qubits as the fake signal to Alice and performing collective measurements after Alice's encoding. The attack process is just like a dense-coding communication between Eve and Alice, where a special measurement basis is employed. Furthermore, this attack does not introduce any errors to the transmitted information and consequently will not be discovered by Alice and Bob. The attack strategy is described in detail and a proof for its correctness is given. Finally, the root cause of this insecurity and a possible way to improve these protocols are discussed.
Cryptanalysis is an important branch in the study of cryptography, including both the classical cryptography and the quantum one. In this paper we analyze the security of two three-party quantum key distribution protocols (QKDPs) proposed recently, and point out that they are susceptible to a simple and effective attack, i.e. the dense-coding attack. It is shown that the eavesdropper Eve can totally obtain the session key by sending entangled qubits as the fake signal to Alice and performing collective measurements after Alice's encoding. The attack process is just like a dense-coding communication between Eve and Alice, where a special measurement basis is employed. Furthermore, this attack does not introduce any errors to the transmitted information and consequently will not be discovered by Alice and Bob. The attack strategy is described in detail and a proof for its correctness is given. At last, the root of this insecurity and a possible way to improve these protocols are discussed.
This paper presents an investigation of practical quantum secure communication using multi-photon tolerant protocols. Multi-photon tolerant protocols loosen the limit on the number of photons imposed by currently used quantum key distribution protocols. The multi-photon tolerant protocols investigated in this paper are multi-stage protocols that do not require any prior agreement between a sender Alice and a receiver Bob. The security of such protocols stems from the fact that the optimal detection strategies between the legitimate users and the eavesdropper are asymmetrical, allowing Bob to obtain measurement results deterministically while imposing unavoidable quantum noise to the eavesdropper Eve's measurement. Multi-photon tolerant protocols are based on the use of transformations known only to the communicating party applying them i.e. either Alice or Bob. In this paper multi-photon tolerant protocols are used in order to share a key or a message between a sender Alice and a receiver Bob. Thus such protocols can be either used as quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols or quantum communication protocols. In addition, multi-stage protocols can be used to share a key between Alice and Bob, followed by the shared key used as a seed key to a single-stage protocol, called the braiding concept. This paper presents a practical study of multi-photon tolerant multi-stage protocols. Security aspects as well as challenges to the practical implementation are discussed. In addition, secret raw key generation rates are calculated with respect to both losses and distances over a fiber optical channel. It is well-known that raw key generation rates decreases with the increase in channel losses and distances. In this paper, coherent non-decoying quantum states are used to transfer the encoded bits from Alice to Bob. Raw key generation rates are calculated for different average photon numbers µ and compared with the case of µ=0.1, which is the average number of photons used in most single-photon based QKD protocols. Furthermore, an optimal average number of photons to be used within the secure region of the multi-photon tolerant protocols is calculated. It is worth noting that, with the increased key generation rates and distances of communication offered by the multi-photon tolerant protocols, quantum secure communication need not be restricted to quantum key distribution; it can be elevated to attain direct quantum secure communication.
Summary form only given. Quantum cryptography uses single photons to allow secure distribution of secret key material to sender and receiver, without the possibility of an undetected eavesdropper. In the protocol suggested by Ekert, each photon of a quantum-mechanically entangled pair is sent to the sender and receiver, who randomly measure the polarization in various bases. If the bases are the same, then sender and receiver will have completely correlated measurement results, which become the shared secret key. Other combinations of measurements are used to test Bell's inequalities, which limit the possible correlations achievable with any local realistic theory. The presence of an intermediate eavesdropper can be readily detected by an inability to violate Bell's inequality. Using the polarization-entangled photon pairs from a novel spontaneous parametric down-conversion source, we have experimentally implemented. Ekert's proposal.