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Physica Scripta

Security of the arbitrated quantum signature protocols revisited

Zhang Kejia, Dan Li, Su Qi

Published Dec 18, 2013• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Recently, much attention has been paid to the study of arbitrated quantum signature (AQS). Among these studies, the cryptanalysis of some AQS protocols and a series of improved ideas have been proposed. Compared with the previous analysis, we present a security criterion, which can judge whether an AQS protocol is able to prevent the receiver (i.e. one participant in the signature protocol) from forging a legal signature. According to our results, it can be seen that most AQS protocols which are based on the Zeng and Keitel (ZK) model are susceptible to a forgery attack. Furthermore, we present an improved idea of the ZK protocol. Finally, some supplement discussions and several interesting topics are provided.

DOI
10.1088/0031-8949/89/01/015102

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•Jan 1, 2009•2 citations
Recently, much attention has been paid to the study of arbitrated quantum signature (AQS). Among these studies, the cryptanalysis of some AQS protocols and a series of improved ideas have been proposed. Compared with the previous analysis, we present a security criterion, which can judge whether an AQS protocol is able to prevent the receiver (i.e. one participant in the signature protocol) from forging a legal signature. According to our results, it can be seen that most AQS protocols which are based on the Zeng and Keitel (ZK) model are susceptible to a forgery attack. Furthermore, we present an improved idea of the ZK protocol. Finally, some supplement discussions and several interesting topics are provided.
As a new model for signing quantum messages, arbitrated quantum signature (AQS) has recently received a lot of attention. In this paper we study the cryptanalysis of previous AQS protocols from the aspects of forgery and disavowal. We show that in these protocols the receiver, Bob, can realize existential forgery of the sender's signature under known message attack. Bob can even achieve universal forgery when the protocols are used to sign a classical message. Furthermore, the sender, Alice, can successfully disavow any of her signatures by simple attack. The attack strategies are described in detail and some discussions about the potential improvements of the protocols are given. Finally we also present several interesting topics on AQS protocols that can be studied in future.
Due to potential capability of providing unconditional security, arbitrated quantum signature (AQS) schemes, whose implementation depends on the participation of a trusted third party, received intense attention in the past decade. Recently, some typical AQS schemes were cryptanalyzed and improved. In this paper, we analyze security property of some AQS schemes and show that all the previous AQS schemes, no matter original or improved, are still insecure in the sense that the messages and the corresponding signatures can be exchanged among different receivers, allowing the receivers to deny accepting the signature of an appointed message. Some further improvement methods on the AQS schemes are also discussed.
Arbitrated quantum signature (AQS) schemes aim at ensuring the authenticity of a message with the help of an arbitrator. Moreover, they aim at preventing repudiation, both from a sender that denies the origin of a message, and from a receiver who disavows its reception. Such protocols use quantum communication and are often designed to protect quantum messages. In this paper, we study four recently submitted AQS schemes and propose attacks on their security. Firstly, we look at Zhang, Sun, Zhang and Jia's AQS scheme which aims at signing quantum messages with chained CNOT encryption. We show that the sender can repudiate her messages and make false allegation of reception. Moreover, we show that a dishonest receiver can forge signatures. Secondly, we analyse Ding, Xin, Yang and Sang's AQS protocol to sign classical messages based on GHZ states. We show that both the sender and the receiver have simple repudiation strategies. Thirdly, we study Lu, Li, Yu and Han's AQS scheme that uses controlled teleportation to protect quantum messages. We expose forgeries, false allegation attacks and the possibility of repudiation by both parties. Fourthly, we focus on the AQS scheme by Zhang, Xin, Sun, Li and Li designed to sign classical messages without entangled states. We show that one can disavow the reception of messages, and that information-theoretic security is not achieved for other security goals.
Arbitrated quantum signatures (AQS), for signing quantum message, have been proposed. It was claimed that the AQS schemes could guarantee unconditional security. However, in this paper, we show that all the presented AQS protocols are insecure if quantum one-time pad encryption is used where the signer Alice can always successfully acquire Bob's secret key and disavow any of her signatures. The detailed attack strategies and security analysis are described. Furthermore, the original version of the protocols is revised and accordingly the security of the AQS protocols are improved. And meanwhile we present a method to against Alice's disavowal proposed by Gao et al. (arXiv:1106.4398v1).
Arbitrated quantum signature (AQS) schemes use quantum cryptography to ensure their security, and the schemes provide that the signature receiver verifies the signature with the arbitrator's assistance.Very recently, Gao and Choi found in some previous AQS schemes, the receiver, Bob can counterfeit the signer's signature under known message.Additionally, the paper gives the security analysis of the AQS scheme, and results show that not only the receiver, but also the attacker can forge the signature in the AQS scheme.Furthermore, the signer can successfully disavow any message she ever signed.To conquer these shortcomings, this paper gives a new AQS scheme without quantum entangled state; it uses special quantum logic gate and new quantum one-time pads to ensure its security.Compares with other previous AQS schemes, the new scheme has following advantages: (1) the new scheme guarantees the receiver and the attacker cannot forge the signature; (2) Because the new scheme does not use quantum entangled states, so it can reduce the complexity of implementation and provides a higher efficiency in transmission; (3) The receiver, Bob has verified the signature's integrity, so Alice cannot disavow her having signed message.
Abstract Zeng and Keitel proposed an arbitrated quantum signature scheme In 2002. Recently, Curty and Lütkenhaus pointed out that the protocol is not operationally specified. In a reply, Zeng gave more details of the scheme. The author also claimed that the scheme is suitable for unknown messages. In this letter, we remark that the invented scenario in the original scheme is artificial. This is because its security entirely depends on the presence of a trustworthy arbitrator. Moreover, the claim that the original scheme is suitable for unknown messages is not sound.