Quantum identity authentication (QIA) has emerged as a crucial technology for secure communication systems, particularly in the burgeoning era of quantum communications. This paper proposes a novel QIA protocol based on non-classical characteristics of squeezed light fields. By exploiting quantum noise reduction properties of quadrature squeezed coherent states, the protocol fundamentally thwarts eavesdropping attempts by Heisenberg-limited uncertainty constraints. The fidelity parameter for decoy states is utilized to detect spoofing attacks, and the dynamic key update mechanism fundamentally eliminates vulnerabilities caused by key reuse. Security information ratio analysis shows that the protocol is able to resist Gaussian-cloner attacks and detect eavesdropping. Moreover, the security threshold can be further enhanced with higher squeezing, allowing tunable protection levels adaptable to different threat scenarios. Compared with binary-squeezed protocols, our proposed four-direction (quaternary-dimensional) squeezing halves the eavesdropper's guessing probability and enlarges the fidelity gap by 29% tightening the discrimination threshold without relying on extra hardware, thus facilitating practical implementation.
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11 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in AVS Quantum Science
Quantum identity authentication (QIA) has emerged as a crucial technology for secure communication systems, particularly in the burgeoning era of quantum communications. This paper proposes a novel QIA protocol based on non-classical characteristics of squeezed light fields. By exploiting quantum noise reduction properties of quadrature squeezed coherent states, the protocol fundamentally thwarts eavesdropping attempts by Heisenberg-limited uncertainty constraints. The fidelity parameter for decoy states is utilized to detect spoofing attacks, and the dynamic key update mechanism fundamentally eliminates vulnerabilities caused by key reuse. Security information ratio analysis shows that the protocol is able to resist Gaussian-cloner attacks and detect eavesdropping. Moreover, the security threshold can be further enhanced with higher squeezing, allowing tunable protection levels adaptable to different threat scenarios. Compared with binary-squeezed protocols, our proposed four-direction (quaternary-dimensional) squeezing halves the eavesdropper's guessing probability and enlarges the fidelity gap by 29% tightening the discrimination threshold without relying on extra hardware, thus facilitating practical implementation.
Quantum identity authentication (QIA) has emerged as a crucial technology for secure communication systems, particularly in the burgeoning era of quantum communications. This paper proposes a novel QIA protocol based on non-classical characteristics of squeezed light fields. By exploiting the quantum noise reduction properties of quadrature squeezed coherent states, the protocol fundamentally thwarts eavesdropping attempts by Heisenberg-limited uncertainty constraints. The fidelity parameter for decoy states is utilized to detect spoofing attacks, and the dynamic key update mechanism fundamentally eliminates vulnerabilities caused by key reuse. Security information ratio analysis shows that the protocol is able to resist Gaussian-cloner attacks and detect eavesdropping. Moreover, the security threshold can be further enhanced with higher squeezing, allowing tunable protection levels adaptable to different threat scenarios. Compared with binary-squeezed protocols, our proposed four-direction (quaternary-dimensional) squeezing halves the eavesdropper's guessing probability and enlarges the fidelity gap by 29%, tightening the discrimination threshold without relying on extra hardware, thus facilitating practical implementation.
Abstract Identity authentication is an important method to ensure the security of information, even for quantum information. A bi-directional quantum identity authentication protocol using a two-mode squeezed state as an entanglement resource is proposed. The decoy states’ sequences are used to enhance the security of the mutual communication process between the legitimate users. The security of the protocol under a Gaussian-cloner attack is investigated in detail with the secret information rate as the major parameters. The results show that the proposed scheme is physically secure and is able to detect possible eavesdroppers.
The absolute security of quantum communication protocols relies on a critical premise: all participating parties are legitimate users. Ensuring the legitimacy of participant identities is paramount in complex real-world communication environments. Quantum identity authentication (QIA), in which fundamental principles of quantum mechanics are used to achieve unilateral or mutual authentication between communicating parties, constitutes an indispensable core component for building a comprehensive quantum secure communication system. It holds significant research value in the field of quantum communication. This review employs a comparative classification method to systematically outline the research trajectory of QIA protocols. By categorizing protocols based on the required quantum resources and the types of quantum protocols employed, the advantages and disadvantages of various categories are analyzed in terms of efficiency, security, and practicality. Single-photon protocols require low resources, and they are easy to implement, and compatible with existing optical components, but require high-efficiency single-photon detectors and exhibit weak noise resistance. Entangled-state protocols offer high security and strong resistance to eavesdropping, particularly suitable for long-distance or multi-party authentication. However, they greatly depend on the preparation and maintenance of high-precision, stable multi-particle entanglement sources, resulting in high experimental complexity. Continuous-variable (CV) protocols achieve high transmission efficiency in short-distance metropolitan area networks and are compatible with classical optical communication equipment, making experiments relatively straightforward. Yet, they require high-precision modulation technology and are sensitive to channel loss. Hybrid protocols aim to balance resource efficiency and security while reducing reliance on a single quantum source, but their design is complex and may introduce new attack vectors. Quantum key distribution (QKD) framework protocols embed identity authentication in the key distribution process, making them suitable for scenarios requiring long-term secure key distribution, although they often depend on pre-shared keys or trusted third parties. Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) framework protocols integrate authentication with secure direct information transmission, offering high efficiency for real-time communication, but requiring high channel quality. Measurement-device-independent QSDC (MDI-QSDC) represents a key development direction that can resist attacks on measurement devices. Quantum teleportation (QT) framework protocols achieves cross-node authentication and unconditional security, making it suitable for quantum relay networks despite its high experimental complexity. The entanglement swapping framework protocol can resist conspiracy attacks and is suitable for multi-party joint scenarios, but it consumes a lot of resources and relies on trusted third party. Ping-pong protocol framework supports dynamic key updates and exhibits strong resistance to eavesdropping, making it suitable for temporary authentication on mobile terminals, although it typically only supports unilateral authentication and requires a bidirectional channel. Subsequently, this review details the latest QIA protocols of our research group, including a multi-party synchronous identity authentication protocol based on Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, and a tripartite QSDC protocol with identity authentication capabilities utilizing polarization-spatial super-coding. The GHZ-based multi-party synchronous authentication protocol leverages the strong correlations inherent in GHZ states to achieve simultaneous authentication among multiple parties. Through a carefully designed two-round decoy-state detection mechanism, it effectively resists both external eavesdropping and internal attacks originating from authenticated users, thereby enhancing the efficiency and security of identity management in large-scale quantum networks. The core innovation of the polarization-spatial super-coding tripartite QSDC protocol lies in its deep integration of the authentication process with information transmission by utilizing the spatial degrees of freedom of single photons. This design accomplishes the identity verification of two senders and the transmission of secret information within a single protocol run, ensuring end-to-end security through a three-stage security check. This “authentication-as-communication” paradigm significantly improves the overall efficiency and practicality of the protocol. Its successful implementation also relies on advancements in quantum memory technology. Finally, the review outlines future research directions for quantum identity authentication and explores its potential applications in quantum communication. The QIA research needs to focus on reducing resource dependency, exploring more efficient protocol designs, further enhancing protocol integration and robustness, prioritizing the development of protocols adaptable to real-world environments, and actively investigating integration with novel scenarios. This comprehensive review aims to provide theoretical research foundations and technical support for the practical development of future quantum identity authentication.
Two continuous-variable quantum identity authentication schemes, which are utilized to prevent active attack, are presented by using Gaussian-modulated squeezed states. The proposed schemes can both verify user's identity as well as distribute an updated new key as the authentication key. A new defined fidelity parameter is proposed to verify the identity of the communicator and detect eavesdropping. The analytical results show the feasibility of these two identity authentication schemes and the security under the attack of general Gaussian-cloner strategy and collective attack.
The advent of quantum key distribution (QKD) has revolutionized secure communication by providing unconditional security, unlike classical cryptographic methods. However, its effectiveness relies on robust identity authentication, as vulnerabilities in the authentication process can cause a compromise with the security of the entire communication system. Over the past three decades, numerous quantum identity authentication (QIA) protocols have been proposed. This thesis first presents a chronological review of these protocols, categorizing them based on quantum resources and computational tasks involved while analyzing their strengths and limitations. Subsequently, by recognizing inherent symmetries present in the existing protocols, we design novel QIA schemes based on secure computational and communication tasks. Specifically, this work introduces a set of new QIA protocols that utilize controlled secure direct quantum communication. The proposed scheme facilitates mutual authentication between two users, Alice and Bob, with assistance from a third party, Charlie, using Bell states. A comprehensive security analysis demonstrates its robustness against impersonation, intercept-resend, and fraudulent authentication attacks. The comparative evaluation highlights its advantages over existing schemes. Additionally, this thesis presents two novel QKD protocols that eliminate the need for entanglement or ideal single-photon sources, making them feasible with commercially available photon sources. These protocols are rigorously proven to be secure against various attacks, including intercept-resend and certain collective attacks. Key rate bounds are established, demonstrating that specific classical pre-processing enhances the tolerable error threshold. PHD THESIS
Unconditional security in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) relies on authenticating the identities of users involved in key distribution. While classical identity authentication schemes were initially utilized in QKD implementations, concerns regarding their vulnerability have prompted the exploration of Quantum Identity Authentication (QIA) protocols. In this study, we introduce a new protocol for QIA, derived from the concept of controlled secure direct quantum communication. Our proposed scheme facilitates simultaneous authentication between two users, Alice and Bob, leveraging Bell states with the assistance of a third party, Charlie. Through rigorous security analysis, we demonstrate that the proposed protocol withstands various known attacks, including impersonation, intercept and resend and impersonated fraudulent attacks. Additionally, we establish the relevance of the proposed protocol by comparing it with the existing protocols of similar type.