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International Journal of Quantum Information

QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION WITH CLASSICAL ALICE

Hua Lu, Qing-yu Cai

Published Dec 1, 2008• 70 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It seems that quantum key distribution (QKD) may be completely insecure when the message sender Alice always encodes her key bits in a fixed basis. In this paper, we present a QKD protocol with classical Alice, i.e. Alice always encodes her key bit in the {|0〉,|1〉} basis (we call it classical {0,1} basis) and the eavesdropper Eve knows this fact. We prove that our protocol is completely robust against any eavesdropping attack and present the amount of tolerable noise against Eve's individual attack. Next, we present a QKD protocol to demonstrate that secure key bits can be distributed even if neither Alice nor Bob has quantum capacities, and extend this idea to a QKD network protocol with numerous parties who have only classical capacities. Finally, we discuss that quantum is necessary in QKD for security reasons, but both Alice and Bob may be classical.

DOI
10.1142/s0219749908004353

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It seems that quantum key distribution (QKD) may be completely insecure when the message sender Alice always encodes her key bits in a fixed basis. In this paper, we present a QKD protocol with classical Alice, i.e. Alice always encodes her key bit in the {|0〉,|1〉} basis (we call it classical {0,1} basis) and the eavesdropper Eve knows this fact. We prove that our protocol is completely robust against any eavesdropping attack and present the amount of tolerable noise against Eve's individual attack. Next, we present a QKD protocol to demonstrate that secure key bits can be distributed even if neither Alice nor Bob has quantum capacities, and extend this idea to a QKD network protocol with numerous parties who have only classical capacities. Finally, we discuss that quantum is necessary in QKD for security reasons, but both Alice and Bob may be classical.
Secure key distribution among classical parties is impossible both between two parties and in a network. In this paper, we present a quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol to distribute secure key bits among one quantum party and numerous classical parties who have no quantum capacity. We prove that our protocol is completely robust, i.e., any eavesdropping attack should be detected with nonzero probability. Our calculations show that our protocol may be secure against Eve's symmetrically individual attack.
Recently, quantum key distribution (QKD) with classical Bob has been suggested and proven completely robust by Boyer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett.99 (2007) 140501] in which quantum Alice has a fully-fledged quantum power, while classical Bob is restricted to preparing and measuring a particle in the computational basis, reflecting or reordering the particles. In this paper, we describe two related but simpler semi-quantum key distribution protocol that exempts classical Bob from measurement (hereafter called limited classical Bob for convenience) and, prove them completely robust. As limited classical Bob can deterministically prepare the qubits, we exploit this feature to construct a semi-quantum secure direct communication protocol, which is the direct communication of secret messages without first producing a shared secret key.
Secure key distribution between two remote parties is impossible when both are classical, unless some unproven (and arguably unrealistic) computation-complexity assumptions are made, such as the difficulty of factorizing large numbers. On the other hand, a secure key distribution is possible when both parties are quantum. What is possible when only one party (Alice) is quantum, yet the other (Bob) has only classical capabilities? Recently, a semiquantum key distribution protocol was presented [M. Boyer, D. Kenigsberg, and T. Mor, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 140501 (2007)], in which one of the parties (Bob) is classical, and yet, the protocol is proven to be completely robust against an eavesdropping attempt. Here we extend that result much further. We present two protocols with this constraint and prove their complete robustness against attacks: we prove that any attempt of an adversary to obtain information (and even a tiny amount of information) necessarily induces some errors that the legitimate parties could notice. One protocol presented here is identical to the one referred to above; however, its robustness is proven here in a much more general scenario. The other protocol is very different as it is based on randomization.
Quantum key distribution allows two parties, traditionally known as Alice and Bob, to establish a secure random cryptographic key if, firstly, they have access to a quantum communication channel, and secondly, they can exchange classical public messages which can be monitored but not altered by an eavesdropper, Eve. Quantum key distribution provides perfect security because, unlike its classical counterpart, it relies on the laws of physics rather than on ensuring that successful eavesdropping would require excessive computational effort. However, security proofs of quantum key distribution are not trivial and are usually restricted in their applicability to specific protocols. In contrast, we present a general and conceptually simple proof which can be applied to a number of different protocols. It relies on the fact that a cryptographic procedure called privacy amplification is equally secure when an adversary's memory for data storage is quantum rather than classical.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) with classical Bob has recently been suggested and proven robust. Following this work, QKD with classical Alice was also suggested and proven robust. The above protocols are ideal in the sense that they make use of qubits. However, in the past, well-known QKD protocols that were proven robust and even proven unconditionally secure, when qubits are used, were found to be totally insecure when photons are used. This is due to sensitivity to photon losses (e.g., Bennett's two-state protocol) or sensitivity to losses combined with multi-photon states (e.g., the photon-number-splitting attack on the weak-pulse Bennett-Brassard protocol, BB84). Here we prove that QKD with classical Alice is still robust when photon losses and even multi-photon states are taken into account.
Secure key distribution among two remote parties is impossible when both are classical, unless some unproven (and arguably unrealistic) computation-complexity assumptions are made, such as the difficulty of factorizing large numbers. On the other hand, a secure key distribution is possible when both parties are quantum. What is possible when only one party (Alice) is quantum, yet the other (Bob) has only classical capabilities? We present two protocols with this constraint, and prove their robustness against attacks: we prove that any attempt of an adversary to obtain information (and even a tiny amount of information) necessarily induces some errors that the legitimate users could notice.