Abstract We introduce a secure hardware device named a QEnclave that can secure the remote execution of quantum operations while only using classical controls. This device extends to quantum computing from the classical concept of a secure enclave that isolates a computation from its environment to provide privacy and tamper-resistance. Remarkably, our QEnclave only performs single qubit rotations but can nevertheless be used to secure an arbitrary quantum computation even if the qubit source is controlled by an adversary. More precisely, by attaching a QEnclave to a quantum computer, a remote client controlling the QEnclave can securely delegate its computation to the server solely using classical communication. We investigate the security of our QEnclave by modeling it as an ideal functionality named remote state rotation (RSR). We show that this resource, similar to the previously introduced functionality of remote state preparation, allows blind delegated quantum computing with perfect security. Our proof under the Abstract Cryptography framework shows the construction of remote state preparation from remote state rotation while preserving security. An immediate consequence is the weakening of the requirements for blind delegated computation. While previous delegated protocols relied on a client that can either generate or measure quantum states, we show that this same functionality can be achieved with a client that only transforms quantum states without generating or measuring them.
Abstract We introduce a secure hardware device named a QEnclave that can secure the remote execution of quantum operations while only using classical controls. This device extends to quantum computing from the classical concept of a secure enclave that isolates a computation from its environment to provide privacy and tamper-resistance. Remarkably, our QEnclave only performs single qubit rotations but can nevertheless be used to secure an arbitrary quantum computation even if the qubit source is controlled by an adversary. More precisely, by attaching a QEnclave to a quantum computer, a remote client controlling the QEnclave can securely delegate its computation to the server solely using classical communication. We investigate the security of our QEnclave by modeling it as an ideal functionality named remote state rotation (RSR). We show that this resource, similar to the previously introduced functionality of remote state preparation, allows blind delegated quantum computing with perfect security. Our proof under the Abstract Cryptography framework shows the construction of remote state preparation from remote state rotation while preserving security. An immediate consequence is the weakening of the requirements for blind delegated computation. While previous delegated protocols relied on a client that can either generate or measure quantum states, we show that this same functionality can be achieved with a client that only transforms quantum states without generating or measuring them.
Hardware security primitives are hardware-based fundamental components and mechanisms used to enhance the security of modern computing systems in general. These primitives provide building blocks for implementing security features and safeguarding against threats to ensure integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information and resources. With the high-speed development of quantum computation and information processing, a huge potential is shown in constructing hardware security primitives with quantum mechanical systems. Meanwhile, addressing potential vulnerabilities from the hardware perspective is becoming increasingly important to ensure the security properties of quantum applications. The thesis focuses on practical hardware security primitives in quantum analogue, which refer to designing and implementing hardware-based security features with quantum mechanical systems against various threats and attacks. Our research follows two questions: How can quantum mechanical systems enhance the security of existing hardware security primitives? And how can hardware security primitives protect quantum computing systems? We give the answers by studying two different types of hardware security primitives with quantum mechanical systems from constructions to applications: Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE). We first propose classical-quantum hybrid constructions of PUFs called HPUF and HLPUF. When PUFs exploit physical properties unique to each individual hardware device to generate device-specific keys or identifiers, our constructions incorporate quantum information processing technologies and implement quantum-secure authentication and secure communication protocols with reusable quantum keys. Secondly, inspired by TEEs that achieve isolation properties by hardware mechanism, we propose the QEnclave construction with quantum mechanical systems. The idea is to provide an isolated and secure execution environment within a larger quantum computing system by utilising secure enclaves/processors to protect sensitive operations from unauthorized access or tampering with minimal trust assumptions. It results in an operationally simple enough QEnclave construction with performing rotations on single qubits. We show that QEnclave enables delegated blind quantum computation on the cloud server with a remote classical user under the security definitions.
Secure delegated quantum computing allows a computationally weak client to outsource an arbitrary quantum computation to an untrusted quantum server in a privacy-preserving manner. One of the promising candidates to achieve classical delegation of quantum computation is classical-client remote state preparation (RSPCC), where a client remotely prepares a quantum state using a classical channel. However, the privacy loss incurred by employing RSPCC as a sub-module is unclear. In this work, we investigate this question using the Constructive Cryptography framework by Maurer and Renner (ICS'11). We first identify the goal of RSPCC as the construction of ideal RSP resources from classical channels and then reveal the security limitations of using RSPCC. First, we uncover a fundamental relationship between constructing ideal RSP resources (from classical channels) and the task of cloning quantum states. Any classically constructed ideal RSP resource must leak to the server the full classical description (possibly in an encoded form) of the generated quantum state, even if we target computational security only. As a consequence, we find that the realization of common RSP resources, without weakening their guarantees drastically, is impossible due to the no-cloning theorem. Second, the above result does not rule out that a specific RSPCC protocol can replace the quantum channel at least in some contexts, such as the Universal Blind Quantum Computing (UBQC) protocol of Broadbent et al. (FOCS '09). However, we show that the resulting UBQC protocol cannot maintain its proven composable security as soon as RSPCC is used as a subroutine. Third, we show that replacing the quantum channel of the above UBQC protocol by the RSPCC protocol QFactory of Cojocaru et al. (Asiacrypt '19), preserves the weaker, game-based, security of UBQC.
Blind quantum computing protocols enable a client, who can generate or measure single-qubit states, to delegate quantum computing to a remote quantum server protecting the client's privacy (i.e., input, output, and program). With current technologies, generations or measurements of single-qubit states are not too much burden for the client. In other words, secure delegated quantum computing is possible for ``almost classical" clients. However, is it possible for a ``completely classical" client? Here we consider a one-round perfectly-secure delegated quantum computing, and show that the protocol cannot satisfy both the correctness (i.e., the correct result is obtained when the server is honest) and the perfect blindness (i.e., the client's privacy is completely protected) simultaneously unless BQP is in NP. Since BQP is not believed to be in NP, the result suggests the impossibility of the one-round perfectly-secure delegated quantum computing.
The rapid evolution of quantum technologies is likely to cause major shifts in the mainstream computing landscape. In order to fully reach their potential in a wide base accessible to any user, remote access of quantum computers and manipulation of data with strong privacy and integrity guarantees are essential. Consider a setting where a client having a fully classical computer wants to determine the result of some quantum computation, but lacks the necessary resources to perform the computation herself. She has access to a more powerful server which has quantum resources and can solve the problem and send the outcome back to the client. However, the client does not trust the powerful server, so she needs to find a way to hide her data. Therefore, the main question that arises is how can we guarantee the client’s privacy of the input and even the computation itself against the server possessing quantum computational capabilities. In the present thesis, we study this problem, denoted here as classical secure delegation of quantum computations (CSDQC) between a fully classical honest client and a quantum untrusted server. We focus on different models of security, analyzing the limitations and potential of each of the settings. Concretely, we first study the CSDQC problem under information-theoretic security. We analyse two categories of quantum computations, decision and sampling problems and in both cases we provide evidence indicating the impossibility of achieving information-theoretic security. Subsequently, we consider relaxing the security framework and specifically, we will analyze this task in the computational security setting (against quantum polynomial-time adversaries). As a result, in the second part of the thesis we put forward the remote state preparation as a key component that would allow us to achieve classical secure delegation of universal quantum computations. We present two protocols realizing the remote state preparation primitive assuming only a classical channel between client and server. The first candidate is shown to be secure in the honest-but-curious model, while the second candidate is proven secure against the server in the malicious setting. The security of both constructions relies on the hardness of the learning with errors problem. Finally, given the important role the remote state preparation plays not only in CSDQC, but also in other quantum communication protocols, we analyze its composable security to determine the privacy loss as a result of using remote state preparation as a sub-module in different protocols.
Secure Delegated Quantum Computation (SDQC) protocols are a vital piece of the future quantum information processing global architecture since they allow end-users to perform their valuable computations on remote quantum servers without fear that a malicious quantum service provider or an eavesdropper might acquire some information about their data or algorithm. They also allow end-users to check that their computation has been performed as they have specified it. However, existing protocols all have drawbacks that limit their usage in the real world. Most require the client to either operate a single-qubit source or perform single-qubit measurements, thus requiring them to still have some quantum technological capabilities albeit restricted, or require the server to perform operations which are hard to implement on real hardware (e.g isolate single photons from laser pulses and polarisation-preserving photon-number quantum non-demolition measurements). Others remove the need for quantum communications entirely but this comes at a cost in terms of security guarantees and memory overhead on the server's side. We present an SDQC protocol which drastically reduces the technological requirements of both the client and the server while providing information-theoretic composable security. More precisely, the client only manipulates an attenuated laser pulse, while the server only handles interacting quantum emitters with a structure capable of generating spin-photon entanglement. The quantum emitter acts as both a converter from coherent laser pulses to polarisation-encoded qubits and an entanglement generator. Such devices have recently been used to demonstrate the largest entangled photonic state to date, thus hinting at the readiness of our protocol for experimental implementations.
Abstract Quantum computing on encrypted data allows a client who has limited quantum capacity to delegate his or her private computation to an untrusted quantum server, while the input and output are encrypted by the quantum one-time pad and only the client can correctly decrypt them. Generally, the client is required to have ability to prepare some single qubits and perform some basic gates. In this work, we consider a further restricted situation where the client can only prepare one single qubit and perform one basic gate. Specifically, we show that as long as the client can prepare a fixed qubit and perform a fixed phase gate P , then he or she can still achieve the secure delegated quantum computation. Besides, our protocol can provide a more rigorous security for any quantum computation. For example, even if some encryption keys about the computation are leaked, it can still guarantee the privacy of the input and output. Finally, our protocol experimentally has a great significance in reducing the device complexity of the client's side.