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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Implementing Diffie-Hellman key exchange using quantum EPR pairs

Sayonnha Mandal, Abhishek Parakh

Published May 21, 2015• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1117/12.2176775

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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.
This paper proposes a novel cryptographic key exchange protocol inspired by quantum mechanics, specifically leveraging the principles of entanglement to enhance security against eavesdropping attacks. Traditional classical key exchange protocols, such as Diffie-Hellman, are susceptible to compromise due to the inherent vulnerabilities in mathematical computations and key distribution. Our approach introduces a verification step based on a measurement of an entangled state, providing a fundamentally different security model. The shared key is derived from the outcome of this measurement, and any attempt to intercept or manipulate the entangled state during transmission will inevitably introduce detectable errors, thus alerting the legitimate parties. We formalize the protocol with mathematical equations, outlining the key generation process and the eavesdropping detection mechanism. The core of the system relies on the uncertainty principle and the correlated nature of entangled states. This system presents a potential pathway towards more robust key exchange mechanisms, particularly as classical cryptography faces increasing pressure from advancements in computational power. The protocol's security is directly tied to the difficulty of accurately replicating the entangled state and performing the required measurement, offering a defense against sophisticated attacks.
Communications in secrecy are often required in many commercial and military applications. Unfortunately, many cryptographic schemes in use today such as public-key cryptography based on the RSA algorithm would be broken with either unanticipated advances in hardware and algorithm or the advent of quantum computers. Quantum cryptography, on the other hand, has been proven secure even against the most general attack allowed by the laws of physics and is a promising technology poised for widespread adoption in realistic cryptographic applications. Quantum cryptography allows two parties to expand on a secret key that they have previously shared. Various quantum cryptographic protocols have been proposed to perform this task. In this paper, we survey some popular quantum cryptographic protocols (including the famous Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol) and discuss their security. Specifically, we consider their security in two cases: the ideal case where a perfect single-photon source is used and the practical case where a realistic laser source is used. We compare the protocols and find that the efficient six-state protocol outperforms the others both in the tolerable quantum bit error rate and in the key generation rate when a realistic laser source is used.
Data transmission has always been vulnerable to eavesdropping.Conventional cryptography has provided security in data communication, however it has some limitations when dealing with passive eavesdropping.Recently, the quantum mechanics has made a remarkable entry in the field of data communication.Now, it is possible to construct cryptographic communication systems which detect unauthorized eavesdropping and guarantee its prevention.Several protocols have been devised to implement such systems e.g., BB84, B92 and EPR.The famous BB84 protocol describes quantum encryption in terms of polarization states of a photon.The secret information is t ransmitted via secure quantum channel followed by a public conversation for verification and reconciliation.The B92 protocol is an extension of BB84 which shows how photons with non-orthogonal states can be used to distribute a secret key.The EPR protocol utilizes an entangled photon pair for encryption-one photon from this pair is transmitted towards the destination while keeping the other at the source; the destination photon describes the state of the source photon, failing to which confirms the intrusion.This paper presents a study of these protocols and a review on the recent developments in the field of secure quantum transmission.
The paper presents the implementation of a quantum cryptography protocol for secure communication between servers in the cloud. As computing power increases, classical cryptography and key management schemes based on computational complexity become increasingly susceptible to brute force and cryptanalytic attacks. 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. The three-stage protocol, whose implementation is described in this paper, is a departure from conventional practice and it obviates some of the known vulnerabilities of the current implementations of quantum cryptography. This paper presents an implementation of the three-stage quantum communication protocol in free-space. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first implementation of a quantum protocol where multiple photons can be used for secure communication.
The paper presents the implementation of a quantum cryptography protocol for secure communication. As computing power increases, classical cryptography and key management schemes based on computational complexity become increasingly susceptible to brute force and cryptanalytic attacks. 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. The three-stage protocol, whose implementation is described in this paper, is a departure from conventional practice and it obviates some of the known vulnerabilities of the current implementations of quantum cryptography. This paper presents an implementation of the three-stage quantum communication protocol in free-space. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first implementation of a quantum protocol where multiple photons can be used for secure communication.
Classical secret sharing proposed by Shamir used classical computational power in classical cryptography to achieve secret key sharing, but with the advent of quantum systems, computational power can be overruled. To ensure a secure secret sharing scheme independent of computational power, a scheme independent of computational complexity is needed to achieve security. This paper will provide a protocol dependent on inherent secure nature of quantum cryptography (quantum no cloning theorem and quantum measurement rule). A secure multiparty quantum secret sharing scheme has been proposed to ensure that no one can eavesdrop or extract any share of the secret message via inherent security provided by quantum entanglement swapping and quantum teleportation. Entanglement swapping is a process that allows two non-interacting quantum systems to be entangled. Whereas, Quantum teleportation allows a party to send a qubit to another entangled party without sending the qubit over the channel. Moreover, in order to ensure security against possible active attacks, sender himself will generate and distribute EPR pairs to be used in the scheme. Result will be a secure multiparty QSS scheme which will be secure against internal and external eavesdropping, masquerading and brute-force attacks.