Implementing Diffie-Hellman key exchange using quantum EPR pairs
Sayonnha Mandal, Abhishek Parakh
This paper implements the concepts of perfect forward secrecy and the Diffie-Hellman key exchange using EPR pairs to establish and share a secret key between two non-authenticated parties and transfer messages between them without the risk of compromise. Current implementations of quantum cryptography are based on the BB84 protocol, which is susceptible to siphoning attacks on the multiple photons emitted by practical laser sources. This makes BB84-based quantum cryptography protocol unsuitable for network computing environments. Diffie-Hellman does not require the two parties to be mutually authenticated to each other, yet it can provide a basis for a number of authenticated protocols, most notably the concept of perfect forward secrecy. The work proposed in this paper provides a new direction in utilizing quantum EPR pairs in quantum key exchange. Although, classical cryptography boasts of efficient and robust protocols like the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, in the current times, with the advent of quantum computing they are very much vulnerable to eavesdropping and cryptanalytic attacks. Using quantum cryptographic principles, however, these classical encryption algorithms show more promise and a more robust and secure structure for applications. The unique properties of quantum EPR pairs also, on the other hand, go a long way in removing attacks like eavesdropping by their inherent nature of one particle of the pair losing its state if a measurement occurs on the other. The concept of perfect forward secrecy is revisited in this paper to attribute tighter security to the proposed protocol.
Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•May 21, 2015•7 citations