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arXiv:2207.08345

Secure bound analysis of quantum key distribution with non-uniform random seed of privacy amplification

Bingze Yan, Yucheng Qiao, Qiong Li, Haokun Mao

Published Jul 18, 2022• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Precise quantum key distribution (QKD) secure bound analysis is essential for practical QKD systems. The effect of uniformity of random number seed for privacy amplification is not considered in existing secure bound analysis. In this paper, we propose and prove the quantum leftover hash lemma with non-uniform random number seeds based on the min-entropy, and we give a precise QKD secure bound analysis with non-uniform random number seeds on this basis. We take the two-decoy BB84 protocol as an example to simulate the effect of random number seed uniformity on the secure bound of a QKD system. The experimental results indicate that when the average min-entropy of the random number generator is below 0.95, the secure bound of a QKD system will be seriously affected.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2207.08345

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Precise quantum key distribution (QKD) secure bound analysis is essential for practical QKD systems. The effect of uniformity of random number seed for privacy amplification is not considered in existing secure bound analysis. In this paper, we propose and prove the quantum leftover hash lemma with non-uniform random number seeds based on the min-entropy, and we give a precise QKD secure bound analysis with non-uniform random number seeds on this basis. We take the two-decoy BB84 protocol as an example to simulate the effect of random number seed uniformity on the secure bound of a QKD system. The experimental results indicate that when the average min-entropy of the random number generator is below 0.95, the secure bound of a QKD system will be seriously affected.
Many researchers have contributed to creating Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) since the first protocol BB84 was proposed in 1984.One of the crucial problems in QKD is to guarantee its security with finite-key lengths by Privacy Amplification (PA).However, finite-key analyses show a trade-off between the security of BB84 and the secure key rates.This study analyses two examples to show concrete trade-offs.Furthermore, even though the QKD keys have been perceived to be arbitrarily secure, this study shows a fundamental limitation in the security of the keys by connecting Leftover Hash Lemma and Guessing Secrecy on the QKD keys.
This paper considers two challenges faced by practical quantum networks: the bootstrapping of seedless Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs) and the resilient combination of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) keys. These issues are addressed using universal hash functions as strong seeded extractors, with security foundations provided by the Quantum Leftover Hash Lemma (QLHL). First, the 'randomness loop' in QRNGs -- the requirement of an initial random seed to generate further randomness -- is resolved by proposing a bootstrapping method using raw data from two independent sources of entropy, given by seedless QRNG sources. Second, it is argued that strong seeded extractors are an alternative to XOR-based key combining that presents different characteristics. Unlike XORing, our method ensures that if the combined output and one initial key are compromised, the remaining key material retains quantifiable smooth min-entropy and remains secure in exchange of longer keys. Furthermore, the proposed method allows binding of transcript information with key material in a natural way, providing a tool to replace computationally based combiners to extend ITS security of the initial key material to the final combined output. By modeling PQC keys as having HILL (Hastad, Impagliazzo, Levin and Luby) entropy, the framework is extended to hybrid PQC-QKD systems. This unified approach provides a mathematically rigorous and future-proof mechanism for both randomness generation and secure key management against quantum adversaries.
The amount of secret key that can be obtained from a quantum key distribution run depends on both the physically observed error rates and the mathematical bounds used to certify security. For finite datasets, conservative bounds force users to discard a substantial fraction of the potentially available key. Here we further refine and extend the privacy amplification bounds achievable through the recent leftover hash lemma of Regula and Tomamichel [arXiv:2603.04493] and incorporate them into the security analysis of quantum key distribution based on entropic uncertainty relations. This improves on state-of-the-art key rates in finite-block regimes, certifying more secret key from the same experimental data without changes to the protocol, and outperforming techniques based on entropy accumulation. The results illustrate how sharper mathematical estimates can directly increase the usable output of a quantum communication system.
Abstract In the process of quantum key distribution (QKD), the communicating parties need to randomly determine quantum states and measurement bases. To ensure the security of key distribution, we aim to use true random sequences generated by true random number generators as the source of randomness. In practical systems, due to the difficulty of obtaining true random numbers, pseudo-random number generators are used instead. Although the random numbers generated by pseudo-random number generators are statistically random, meeting the requirements of uniform distribution and independence, they rely on an initial seed to generate corresponding pseudo-random sequences. Attackers may predict future elements from the initial elements of the random sequence, posing a security risk to quantum key distribution. This paper analyzes the problems existing in current pseudo-random number generators and proposes corresponding attack methods and applicable scenarios based on the vulnerabilities in the pseudo-random sequence generation process. Under certain conditions, it is possible to obtain the keys of the communicating parties with very low error rates, thus effectively attacking the quantum key system. This paper presents new requirements for the use of random numbers in quantum key systems, which can effectively guide the security evaluation of quantum key distribution protocols.
The BB84 quantum key distribution (QKD) combined with decoy-state method is currently the most practical protocol, which has been proved secure against general attacks in the finite-key regime. Thereinto, statistical fluctuation analysis methods are very important in dealing with finite-key effects, which directly affect secret key rate, secure transmission distance and most importantly, the security. There are two tasks of statistical fluctuation in decoy-state BB84 QKD. One is the deviation between expected value and observed value for a given expected value or observed value. The other is the deviation between phase error rate of computational basis and bit error rate of dual basis. Here, we provide the rigorous and optimal analytic formula to solve the above tasks, resulting to higher secret key rate and longer secure transmission distance. Our results can be widely applied to deal with statistical fluctuation in quantum cryptography protocols.
The privacy amplification term, of which the lower bound needs to be estimated with the decoy-state method, plays a positive role in the secure key rate formula for decoy-state quantum key distribution. In previous work, the yield and the bit error rate of single-photon state are estimated separately to gain this lower bound. In this work, we for the first time take the privacy amplification term as a whole to consider this lower bound. The mathematical description for the correlation between the yield and the bit error rate of single-photon state is given with just two unknown variables. Based on this, we obtain the global estimation of this lower bound for both BB84 protocol and measurement-device-independent protocol. The results of numerical simulation show that the global estimation can significantly improve the performance of quantum key distribution.