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IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics

Single-Photon Multiparty Quantum Cryptographic Protocols With Collective Detection

Bin Liu, Fei Gao, Qiaoyan Wen

Published Sep 21, 2011• 45 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In order to reduce the requirements on quantum devices, Shih proposed two three-party quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols . However, Gao presented a simple and effective attack strategy (i.e., dense-coding attack) upon the two protocols . In this paper, we make a deep analysis on the reason why Shih three-party QKD protocols are not secure. Meanwhile, we improve the three-party QKD protocols so that they can resist the Gao attack. On this basis, we present a formalism of single-photon multiparty quantum cryptographic protocol with collective detection. In this formalism, single photons are employed and all participants, except one whom we call as the center, only need to have the ability to perform single qubit unitary operations. Considering the expensive quantum devices, this formalism is low-priced which means it is easy to realize. Further more, this formalism can be widely used in various quantum cryptographic protocols, such as quantum secret sharing, quantum coin flipping, and quantum secure direct communication.

DOI
10.1109/jqe.2011.2167743

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In order to reduce the requirements on quantum devices, Shih proposed two three-party quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols . However, Gao presented a simple and effective attack strategy (i.e., dense-coding attack) upon the two protocols . In this paper, we make a deep analysis on the reason why Shih three-party QKD protocols are not secure. Meanwhile, we improve the three-party QKD protocols so that they can resist the Gao attack. On this basis, we present a formalism of single-photon multiparty quantum cryptographic protocol with collective detection. In this formalism, single photons are employed and all participants, except one whom we call as the center, only need to have the ability to perform single qubit unitary operations. Considering the expensive quantum devices, this formalism is low-priced which means it is easy to realize. Further more, this formalism can be widely used in various quantum cryptographic protocols, such as quantum secret sharing, quantum coin flipping, and quantum secure direct communication.
Collective detection is an efficient eavesdropping detection strategy in which the detection is taken only once after the whole process of particle transmission. Such detection strategy not only improves the efficiencies of the protocols but also reduces the cost of realization as the users (except for center) only need to perform unitary operations in the whole communication. The unitary operations, which cannot be discriminated precisely, are of vital role in the multiparty quantum cryptographic protocols with collective detection (MQCPs-CD). However, constructing such operations is still a difficult point that exists in designing this kind of protocols. In this paper, we present a method for constructing the required operations for MQCPs-CD with different kinds of quantum states. It is a general method which is helpful for designing secure MQCPs-CD over different kinds of quantum channels. Utilizing this method, we first present two robust three-party quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols with collective detection over collective-dephasing noise channel and collective-rotation noise channel respectively. Then we also propose a robust three-party QKD protocol with collective detection which can resist all kinds of unitary collective noise. Compared with the precious MQCPs-CD, our protocols are the first ones which can not only resist channel noise, but also utilize collective detection strategy. At last, we prove the security of all the proposed protocols based on the theorems of quantum operation discrimination.
Cryptanalysis is an important branch in the study of cryptography, including both the classical cryptography and the quantum one. In this paper we analyze the security of two three-party quantum key distribution protocols (QKDPs) proposed recently, and point out that they are susceptible to a simple and effective attack, i.e. the dense-coding attack. It is shown that the eavesdropper Eve can totally obtain the session key by sending entangled qubits as the fake signal to Alice and performing collective measurements after Alice's encoding. The attack process is just like a dense-coding communication between Eve and Alice, where a special measurement basis is employed. Furthermore, this attack does not introduce any errors to the transmitted information and consequently will not be discovered by Alice and Bob. The attack strategy is described in detail and a proof for its correctness is given. At last, the root of this insecurity and a possible way to improve these protocols are discussed.
Cryptanalysis is an important branch in the study of cryptography, including both the classical cryptography and the quantum one. In this paper we analyze the security of two three-party quantum key distribution protocols (QKDPs) proposed recently, and point out that they are susceptible to a simple and effective attack, i.e., the dense-coding attack. It is shown that the eavesdropper Eve can totally obtain the session key by sending entangled qubits as the fake signal to Alice and performing collective measurements after Alice's encoding. The attack process is just like a dense-coding communication between Eve and Alice, where a special measurement basis is employed. Furthermore, this attack does not introduce any errors to the transmitted information and consequently will not be discovered by Alice and Bob. The attack strategy is described in detail and a proof for its correctness is given. Finally, the root cause of this insecurity and a possible way to improve these protocols are discussed.
Abstract In quantum cryptography, fundamental laws of quantum physics are exploited to enhance the security of cryptographic tasks. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is by far the most studied protocol to date, enabling the establishment of a secret key between trusted parties. Many practical use-cases in communication networks, however, involve parties who do not trust each other. The most fundamental quantum cryptographic building block in such a distrustful setting is quantum coin flipping, which has been studied only in few experimental studies to date, all of which used probabilistic quantum light sources facing fundamental limitations. Here, we experimentally implement a quantum strong coin flipping protocol using single-photon states and demonstrate an advantage compared to both classical realizations and implementations using faint laser pulses. We achieve this by employing a state-of-the-art deterministic single-photon source based on the Purcell-enhanced emission of a semiconductor quantum dot in combination with fast polarization-state encoding with sufficiently low quantum bit error ratio. The reduced multi-photon emission of the single-photon source yields a smaller bias of the coin flipping protocol compared to an attenuated laser implementation, both in simulations and in the experiment. By demonstrating a single-photon quantum advantage in a cryptographic primitive beyond QKD, our work represents a major advance towards the implementation of complex cryptographic tasks in a future quantum internet.
Recently, Gao et al.'s [ Commun. Theor. Phys. 52 (2009) 421 ] multiparty quantum secret sharing (MQSS) protocol with two-photon three-dimensional Bell states was enhanced by Hwang et al. [ Commun. Theor. Phys. 56 (2011) 79 ]. The improved protocol removes some unnecessary unitary operations, devices, and transmissions by the technique of decoy single photons and careful modification. However, in this paper, we investigate the security of the improved protocol and find it is insecure. The eavesdropper can steal all Alice's secret information. Furthermore, a feasible modification to remedy the security loophole is put forward. Our improved protocol provides a basic method to modify a kind of MQSS protocols which cannot resist the collusion attack.