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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Development of Quantum Key Distribution and Attacks against It

Yusheng Zhao

Published Sep 1, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Secure and efficient communication between two parties always incents scholars for further research. Creation of such a means of communication yields commercial benefits for our society. With the creation of a quantum computer, some classical protocols used for secure communication is no longer secure. Quantum key distribution is created to solve this problem. Although a quantum key distribution protocol is in theory guaranteed to be secure, there has been ways to breach its security in real life application. Since the creation of the first quantum key distribution protocol, there has been a rival between the defending and attacking side of quantum key distribution. In this paper, we first seek to discuss the basics of the first quantum key distribution protocol. Secondly, we discuss about the attacks against that protocol and the modifications made to the protocol in response to these attacks. Currently, researchers have permanently closed one side of the implementation loophole that could give rise to potential means of hacking of the protocol.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/1087/4/042028

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Secure and efficient communication between two parties always incents scholars for further research. Creation of such a means of communication yields commercial benefits for our society. With the creation of a quantum computer, some classical protocols used for secure communication is no longer secure. Quantum key distribution is created to solve this problem. Although a quantum key distribution protocol is in theory guaranteed to be secure, there has been ways to breach its security in real life application. Since the creation of the first quantum key distribution protocol, there has been a rival between the defending and attacking side of quantum key distribution. In this paper, we first seek to discuss the basics of the first quantum key distribution protocol. Secondly, we discuss about the attacks against that protocol and the modifications made to the protocol in response to these attacks. Currently, researchers have permanently closed one side of the implementation loophole that could give rise to potential means of hacking of the protocol.
After decades of research, computer scientists have in recent years come close to reaching substantive results which prove the usability of quantum key distribution (QKD). Several QKD protocols and different schemes have surfaced since the last century. Additionally, some of these protocols were created in new algorithms and up until now, have been proven to be secure; however, other scientists only made modifications to previous original protocols. This paper seeks to create a new scheme in QKD that will communicate between two parties and will give them a high level of security against any well-known attacks while handling both of parties in a manner that will reduce their dependency on both classic communication and the classical channel.
With the emergence of an information society, the idea of protecting sensitive data is steadily gaining importance. Conventional encryption methods may not be sufficient to guarantee data protection in the future. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is an emerging technology that exploits fundamental physical properties to guarantee perfect security in theory. However, it is not easy to ensure in practice that the implementations of QKD systems are exactly in line with the theoretical specifications. Such theory-practice deviations can open loopholes and compromise security. Several such loopholes have been discovered and investigated in the last decade. These activities have motivated the proposal and implementation of appropriate countermeasures, thereby preventing future attacks and enhancing the practical security of QKD. This article introduces the so-called field of quantum hacking by summarising a variety of attacks and their prevention mechanisms.
With the emergence of an information society, the idea of protecting sensitive data is steadily gaining importance. Conventional encryption methods may not be sufficient to guarantee data protection in the future. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is an emerging technology that exploits fundamental physical properties to guarantee perfect security in theory. However, it is not easy to ensure in practice that the implementations of QKD systems are exactly in line with the theoretical specifications. Such theory–practice deviations can open loopholes and compromise security. Several such loopholes have been discovered and investigated in the last decade. These activities have motivated the proposal and implementation of appropriate countermeasures, thereby preventing future attacks and enhancing the practical security of QKD. This article introduces the so-called field of quantum hacking by summarising a variety of attacks and their prevention mechanisms.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a cryptographic technique that enables secure private key exchange between geographically distant parties over an insecure channel, protecting confidentiality against potential eavesdroppers. QKD has evolved significantly since its inception with the BB84 protocol proposed by Bennett and Brassard in 1984. Its theoretical foundation relies on quantum physics, particularly the uncertainty principle, the no-cloning theorem, and particle entanglement, which ensures its information-theoretic security when combined with the one-time-pad cryptographic algorithm. However, certain security loopholes persist in terms of practical implementation in commercial devices. Some vulnerabilities are associated with side-channel vectors linked to commonly used optical subcomponents, while others are more related to how existing protocols handle encoding and communication pipelines. In this work, we aim to comprehensively study the current state of security loopholes affecting QKD technology in commercial devices. We also provide a concise overview of the existing types of QKD implementations. Additionally, we offer insights into current trends and vulnerability countermeasures, paving the way for future research and novel mechanisms to enhance the implementation security of commercial QKD devices.
The last decade, the evolution in quantum computing has been enormous and real and reliable quantum computers are being developed quickly. One of the consequences of the upcoming quantum era is to make key distribution protocols insecure, as most of them are based on discrete algorithm problems. On the other hand, quantum computing provides a powerful and prominent tool for the safe transmission of information and cryptographic schemes and many of them have already been proposed. In this work, we discuss about quantum cryptography and we present certain quantum key distribution protocols. We also discuss about ‘potential attacks that can be performed against the quantum cryptographic schemes which are based on quantum system’s imperfections and loopholes.
Quantum cryptography offers a promising unbreakable cryptographic solution as it ensures perfect secrecy in applications such as quantum key distribution and bit commitment. The focus of this paper is to trace the development of quantum key distribution protocols and discuss the state of the art and open issues in this field. Although the protocols have mathematically proven to be totally secure, it must be emphasized that any real world implementation suffers the limitations of physical devices which can serve as vulnerability for an eavesdropper to exploit. In this paper, we survey the quantum key distribution protocols which exist in literature and explore the attacks to which they are vulnerable. We highlight the main implementation bottlenecks related with each implementation and the solutions proposed thereof.