This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a hybrid encryption framework that combines quantum key distribution, specifically a simulated BB84 protocol, with AES-256 encryption. The system enables secure file encryption by leveraging quantum principles for key generation and classical cryptography for data protection. It introduces integrity validation mechanisms, including HMAC verification and optional post-quantum digital signatures, ensuring robustness even in the presence of quantum-capable adversaries. The entire architecture is implemented in Python, with modular components simulating quantum key exchange, encryption, and secure packaging. Experimental results include visual testing of various attack scenarios, such as key tampering, HMAC failure, and file corruption, demonstrating the effectiveness and resilience of the approach. The proposed solution serves as a practical foundation for quantum-aware cybersecurity systems.
This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a hybrid encryption framework that combines quantum key distribution, specifically a simulated BB84 protocol, with AES-256 encryption. The system enables secure file encryption by leveraging quantum principles for key generation and classical cryptography for data protection. It introduces integrity validation mechanisms, including HMAC verification and optional post-quantum digital signatures, ensuring robustness even in the presence of quantum-capable adversaries. The entire architecture is implemented in Python, with modular components simulating quantum key exchange, encryption, and secure packaging. Experimental results include visual testing of various attack scenarios, such as key tampering, HMAC failure, and file corruption, demonstrating the effectiveness and resilience of the approach. The proposed solution serves as a practical foundation for quantum-aware cybersecurity systems.
The emergence of quantum computing poses a significant threat to classical cryptographic systems, particularly those relying on mathematical hardness assumptions for key exchange. While symmetric algorithms such as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) remain efficient and widely deployed, their long-term security ultimately depends on the secrecy of keys. In this paper, we present a hybrid framework that integrates quantum key distribution (QKD) with AES and DES to enhance key security without altering cipher internals. Using the BB84 protocol as the quantum key generator, we implement a simulation-based system in Qiskit and evaluate it against classical pseudo-random key generation.Our methodology covers five phases: establishing AES/DES baselines, generating quantum random keys, implementing BB84 with basis reconciliation and error detection, integrating quantum keys with AES/DES, and benchmarking across varying key sizes and file sizes. Results demonstrate that AES encryption throughput remains stable (around 250–370 MB/s) regardless of key source, while QKD introduces measurable latency in key generation (around 40–110 seconds for 128–256 bits). Importantly, adversarial interference is reliably detected, with 97.3% accuracy in eavesdropper identification.The findings confirm that while classical systems excel in speed and scalability, QKD offers unmatched, physics-backed security assurances. Our study highlights the practicality of hybrid quantum-classical encryption, providing a foundation for secure communication in the post-quantum era.
The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses a serious threat to traditional cryptographic systems such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which rely on computational difficulty for security. Quantum algorithms like Shor’s and Grover’s have the potential to break or weaken these methods, putting modern communication systems at risk. To address this challenge, this work presents a quantum-safe com-munication framework that combines the BB84 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) techniques, aiming to ensure secure data exchange in the presence of quantum-capable adversaries. In this system, the BB84 protocol is simulated to enable secure key exchange between two parties over a virtual quantum channel. The generated key is refined through processes such as basis matching, error correction, and privacy amplification using SHA-256 to ensure reliability and secrecy. For secur-ing communication, One-Time Pad (OTP) encryption is used alongside HMAC-SHA3-256 to provide both confidentiality and message integrity. Additionally, file encryption is handled using the XChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithm, selected for its efficiency and strong protection against potential vulnerabilities like nonce reuse. To further enhance security, the framework integrates a hybrid key management approach using the Kyber-512 Key Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM) combined with a Key Deriva-tion Function (KDF), merging classical and quantum-resistant techniques. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the system, achieving a Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) of 2.5% and successful performance in both message and file en-cryption. Overall, this work contributes toward the development of practical and resilient communication systems designed for the emerging quantum era.
With quantum computing nearing cryptographically relevant capabilities, classical file transfer systems face significant vulnerabilities, necessitating quantum-resistant solutions. This paper presents a hybrid architecture for secure file transfer, integrating a simulated BB84 quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol with adaptive encryption to achieve post-quantum security. The system intelligently selects one-time pad (OTP) cryptography for files up to 1MB, ensuring perfect secrecy, and AES-256-GCM for larger files, balancing efficiency and integrity, both using quantum-derived keys. Implemented in a TCP-based client-server framework, it employs a quantum key management module to maintain a pool of secure keys, with real-time error detection for eavesdropping. Experimental evaluation demonstrates robust key generation (error rate < 1% without eavesdropping, ~ 15% with interception), reliable encryption, and efficient transfers on standard hardware, eliminating the need for specialized quantum devices. This scalable, software-based solution advances quantum-enhanced protection for distributed file-sharing environments, addressing the urgent demand for practical post-quantum security.
Quantum computing is a significant risk to classical cryptographic, especially RSA, which depends on the difficulty of factoring large numbers. Classical factorization methods, such as Trial Division and Pollard's Rho, are inefficient for large keys, while Shor's quantum algorithm can break RSA efficiently in polynomial time. This research studies RSA's vulnerabilities under both classical and quantum attacks and designs a hybrid security framework to ensure data protection in the post-quantum era. The conceptual framework combines AES encryption for classical security, BB84 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) for secure key exchange with eavesdropping detection, quantum state comparison for lightweight authentication, and a bio-inspired immune system for adaptive threat detection. RSA is vulnerable to Shor's algorithm, BB84 achieves full key agreement in ideal conditions, and it detects eavesdropping with high accuracy. The conceptual model includes both classical and quantum security methods, providing a scalable and adaptive solution for Post-Quantum encryption data protection. This work primarily proposes a conceptual framework. Detailed implementation, security proofs, and extensive experimental validation are considered future work.
This paper introduces a hybrid encryption framework combining classical cryptography (EdDSA, ECDH), post-quantum cryptography (ML-DSA-6x5, ML-KEM-768), and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) via Guardian to counter quantum computing threats. Our prototype implements this integration, using a key derivation function to generate secure symmetric and HMAC keys, and evaluates its performance across execution time and network metrics. The approach improves data protection by merging classical efficiency with PQC's quantum resilience and QKD's key security, offering a practical transition path for cryptographic systems. This research lays the foundation for future adoption of PQC in securing digital communication.
This study provides an integrated quantum classical and traditional cryptographic framework that combines the Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution to RSA and AES for achieving highly enhanced secure communication. Upgrading the previous work, involving a BB84 with RSA and AES hybrid scheme. Similarly, this paper advances the security by incorporating DI-QKD in which it rejects assumptions about the internal functioning of the quantum devices and protects against the side channel attacks. In this proposed model, DI-QKD helps to create or generate provably secure shared keys, based on Bell-inequality violations whereas RSA ensures reliability in authentication and public key exchange. AES provides high-speed symmetric encryption for the mass data protection. This paper therefore establishes the complete DI-QKD with RSA and AES workflow simulating secure key generation; producing encrypted message outputs and the performance metrics such as key generation rate; quantum bit error rate; encryption time and overall system throughput is measured. These graphical results are compared with the earlier BB84 hybrid model to evaluate operational efficiency, resistance to adversarial interference and security robustness and too highlights the quantitative improvement offered by DI-QKD especially in antagonistic or untrusted device scenarios. Hence this paper demonstrates that the DI-QKD with RSA, AES hybrid system offering strengthened quantum safe security with classical compatibility, positioning it as a propitious architecture for the futuristic cryptographic networks.