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arXiv:2504.17240

Quantum stream cipher and Quantum block cipher -The Era of 100 Gbit/sec real-time encryption-

Osamu Hirota

Published Apr 24, 2025• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

This paper is the part-II of the previous paper and introduces the world of Yuen's concept. In the theory of cryptology, the Shannon impossibility theorem states that the upper bound of the security of a plaintext against a ciphertext-only attack is the entropy of the secret key. At the same time, it gives the upper bound of the unicity distance against a known plaintext attack. Hence the development of a new symmetric key cipher requires finding a way to undo or lift this theorem. Such challenges have been attempted with quantum stream cipher and quantum data locking as block cipher. Both ciphers are designed by means of differentiating the receiving performance of Bob with key and Eve without key according to the principle of quantum communication theory. Thus, the origin of security of both ciphers come from the principle of keyed communication in quantum noise (KCQ) proposed by Yuen. In this paper, we explain and compare the principles and features of both cipher and assist to improve the quantum data locking scheme. Then we will introduce experimental research on quantum stream cipher towards commercialization, which has performance superior to conventional cipher.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2504.17240

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This paper is the part-II of the previous paper and introduces the world of Yuen's concept. In the theory of cryptology, the Shannon impossibility theorem states that the upper bound of the security of a plaintext against a ciphertext-only attack is the entropy of the secret key. At the same time, it gives the upper bound of the unicity distance against a known plaintext attack. Hence the development of a new symmetric key cipher requires finding a way to undo or lift this theorem. Such challenges have been attempted with quantum stream cipher and quantum data locking as block cipher. Both ciphers are designed by means of differentiating the receiving performance of Bob with key and Eve without key according to the principle of quantum communication theory. Thus, the origin of security of both ciphers come from the principle of keyed communication in quantum noise (KCQ) proposed by Yuen. In this paper, we explain and compare the principles and features of both cipher and assist to improve the quantum data locking scheme. Then we will introduce experimental research on quantum stream cipher towards commercialization, which has performance superior to conventional cipher.
This paper is dedicated to the late Professor H.P. Yuen in commemoration to our 50-year friendship. He invented the concept of quantum stream cipher. It is designed based on a completely different concept from conventional ciphers. The purpose of this cipher is to provide information-theoretic security of long data and secret key with short key length. It is based on hiding the ciphertext of mathematical cipher with quantum noise, achieving unprecedented information-theoretic security in any cipher. The protocol corresponds to randomizing the ciphertext by means of differentiating the receiving performance of Bob with key and Eve without key according to the principle of quantum communication theory. In this paper, we introduce some progress on the specific method to develop from the standard type to generalized quantum stream cipher (Quantum Enigma Cipher). There are two methods for generalization. One is the additional randomization method by the product cipher form and the other is the M-th order extended quantum coding method. Here we discuss the former. The results proved that it has sufficient information-theoretic security against known plaintext attack on key in comparison with quantum data locking. The latter method will be reported in Part II.
In 2000, an attractive new quantum cryptography was discovered by H.P.Yuen based on quantum communication theory. It is applicable to direct encryption, for example quantum stream cipher based on Yuen protocol(Y-00), with high speeds and for long distance by sophisticated optical devices which can work under the average photon number per signal light pulse: <n> = 1000 ~ 10000. In addition, it may provide information-theoretic security against known/chosen plaintext attack, which has no classical analogue. That is, one can provide secure communication, even the system has H(K)<<H(X). This is a challenge to overcome Shannon limit in the cryptography theory. In this paper, first, we give a brief review on the general logic of Yuen's theory. Then, we show concrete security analysis of quantum stream cipher to quantum individual measurement attacks. Especially by showing the analysis of Lo-Ko known plaintext attack, the feature of Y-00 is clarified. In addition, we give a simple experimental result on the scheme consisting of intensity modulation/direct detection optical communication.
The security in the next generation optical network which realizes "Cloud Computing System Service with data center" is one of the most important problems. In such a network, the encryption in physical layer which provide super security and small delay is a preferable. It has to be applicable, however, to very high speed data because the basic link is operated at 2.5 Gbit/sec ~ 10 Gbit/sec. The quantum stream cipher by Yuen-2000 protocol (Y00) is a completely new type of random cipher, which can exceed the Shannon limit of the symmetric key cipher. This paper extends some theoretical results on the security for quantum stream cipher such as Y00 protocol and generalized Y00. First, the conditions to exceed the Shannon limit are summarized. We formulate a generalized secret capacity in the sense of wire tap channel supported by secret key to clarify a cipher exceeding the Shannon limit. The generalized secret capacities for space communication and fiber communication based on the generalized Y00 are given. When the relaxation of physical constraint or device limit of the eavesdropper is allowed, we point out that a cipher scheme exceeding the Shannon limit can be realized only by the conventional optical system.
This research note suggests a new way to realize a high speed direct encryption based on quantum detection theory. The conventional cipher is designed by a mathematical algorithm and its security is evaluated by the complexity of the algorithm for cryptanalysis and ability of computers. This kind of cipher cannot exceed the Shannon limit of cryptography,and it can be decrypted with probability one in principle by trying all the possible keys against the data length equal to the secret key length. A cipher with quantum effect in physical layer may exceed the Shannon limit of cryptography. The quantum stream cipher by α/ηα/ηα/η or Yuen-2000 protocol (Y-00) which operates at Gbit/sec is a typical example of such a cipher. That is, ciphertext of mathematical cipher with a secret key is masked by quantum noise of laser light when an eavesdropper observes optical signals as a ciphertext of the mathematical cipher, while the legitimate receiver does not suffer the quantum noise effect. As a result, the inherent difference of accuracy of ciphertext between eavesdropper and legitimate receiver arises. This is a necessary condition to exceed the Shannon limit of cryptography. In this note, we present a new method to generate an inherent difference of accuracy of the ciphertext, taking into account a fundamental properties of quantum detection schemes.
This research note suggests a new way to realize a high speed direct encryption based on quantum detection theory. The conventional cipher is designed by a mathematical algorithm and its security is evaluated by the complexity of the algorithm for cryptanalysis and ability of computers. This kind of cipher cannot exceed the Shannon limit of cryptography, and it can be decrypted with proba- bility one in principle by trying all the possible keys against the data length equal to the secret key length. A cipher with quantum effect in physical layer may exceed the Shannon limit of cryptography. The quantum stream cipher by α/η or Yuen-2000 protocol (Y-00) which operates at Gbit/sec is a typical example of such a cipher. That is, ciphertext of mathematical cipher with a secret key is masked by quantum noise of laser light when an eavesdropper observes optical signals as a ciphertext of the mathematical cipher, while the legitimate receiver does not suffer the quantum noise effect. As a result, the inherent difference of accuracy of ciphertext between eavesdropper and legitimate receiver arises. This is a necessary condition to exceed the Shannon limit of cryptography. In this note, we present a new method to generate an inherent difference of accuracy of the ciphertext, taking into account a fundamental properties of quantum detection schemes.
This paper discusses the foundation of security theory for the Quantum stream cipher based on the Holevo-Yuen theory, which allows the use of "optical amplifiers". This type of cipher is a technology that provides information-theoretic security (ITS) to optical data transmission by randomizing ultrafast optical communication signals with quantum noise. In general, the quantitative security of ITS is evaluated in terms of the unicity distance in Shannon theory. However, the quantum version requires modeling beyond the Shannon model of a random cipher to utilize the characteristics of the physical layer. Therefore, as the first step, one has to develop a generalized unicity distance theory and apply it to the evaluation of security. Although a complete theoretical formulation has not yet been established, this paper explains a primitive structure of a generalization of the Shannon random cipher and shows that the realization of this is the generalized quantum stream cipher. In addition, we present several implementation methods of generalized quantum stream ciphers and their security.