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International Journal of Quantum Information

Semiquantum secure direct communication with authentication based on single-photons

Ming‐Ming Wang, Junli Liu, Linming Gong

Published Apr 1, 2019• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Semiquantum cryptography has drawn much attention in recent years since it simplifies the implementation of quantum cryptographic protocols. In this paper, we study semiquantum secure direct communication (SQSDC). Based on single-photons, we propose a two-step SQSDC protocol with identity authentication, which can be used to prevent impersonation and the man-in-the-middle attack. Different from previous protocols based on quantum entanglement or quantum memory, our protocol removes there restrictions for simplifying its physical implementation. We prove that our two-step SQSDC protocol is completely robust. That is, any adversarial attempting to learn some information on the secure message or identity strings will inevitably induce some errors that can be detected by communicators.

DOI
10.1142/s0219749919500242

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Semiquantum cryptography has drawn much attention in recent years since it simplifies the implementation of quantum cryptographic protocols. In this paper, we study semiquantum secure direct communication (SQSDC). Based on single-photons, we propose a two-step SQSDC protocol with identity authentication, which can be used to prevent impersonation and the man-in-the-middle attack. Different from previous protocols based on quantum entanglement or quantum memory, our protocol removes there restrictions for simplifying its physical implementation. We prove that our two-step SQSDC protocol is completely robust. That is, any adversarial attempting to learn some information on the secure message or identity strings will inevitably induce some errors that can be detected by communicators.
In this paper, we propose the first semiquantum secure direct communication (SQSDC) protocol which is based on single photons in both polarization and spatial-mode degrees of freedom. This protocol doesn't require both communicants to possess quantum capabilities, and is feasible for the direct communication circumstance where one communicant is quantum and the other is classical. We validate the complete robustness of the transmissions of single photons between two communicants in Steps 1 and 2 of this protocol in detail. It turns out that during these transmissions, if Eve wants not to be detected by two communicants, she will obtain nothing useful. The security of the whole protocol is guaranteed by the complete robustness of the transmissions of single photons between two communicants in Steps 1 and 2 of this protocol and the subsequent classical one-time pad encryption process. In this protocol, one single photon with two degrees of freedom can carry two private bits from the message owner, so compared with the existing SQSDC protocols based on single photons in one degree of freedom, its quantum communication capacity is doubled.
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) can transmit secret messages directly from one user to another without first establishing a shared secret key, which is different from quantum key distribution. In this paper, we propose a novel quantum secure direct communication protocol based on signal photons and Bell states. Before the execution of the proposed protocol, two participants Alice and Bob exchange their corresponding identity IDA and IDB through quantum key distribution and keep them secret, respectively. Then the message sender, Alice, encodes each secret message bit into two single photons (| 01〉or|10〉) or a Bell state , and composes an ordered secret message sequence. To insure the security of communication, Alice also prepares the decoy photons and inserts them into secret message sequence on the basis of the values of IDA and IDB. By the secret identity IDA and IDB, both sides of the communication can check eavesdropping and identify each other. The proposed protocol not only completes secure direct communication, but also realizes the mutual authentication. The security analysis of the proposed protocol is presented in the paper. The analysis results show that this protocol is secure against some common attacks, and no secret message leaks even if the messages are broken. Compared with the two-way QSDC protocols, the presented protocol is a one-way quantum communication protocol which has the immunity to Trojan horse attack. Furthermore, our proposed protocol can be realized without quantum memory.
Semi-quantum protocol is a hot topic in quantum cryptography. One of the original motivational reasons to study semi-quantum protocol is to better understand “how quantum” a protocol needs to be in order to gain an advantage over its classical counterpart. Semi-quantum secure direct communication (SQSDC) is an important branch of the semi-quantum protocol, which makes it possible to directly transfer large amounts of data between quantum participant and classical participant without need to share the secret key in advance. In this paper, we propose two new SQSDC protocols based on single photons to study how to reduce the quantum resource requirements of both quantum participant and classical participant. In both protocols, the classical participant requires neither quantum memory or quantum delay lines. We first propose in the first protocol that the quantum participant only need to prepare single-state qubits in the preparation phase, which is different from previous SQSDC protocols. Then we propose in the second protocol that quantum participant can accomplish the same work as the first one even without quantum memory. Efficiency analysis shows that the first protocol is more efficient than some protocol, and the second one can save more quantum resources at the expense of some efficiency. Compared with the existing SQSDC protocols based on single photons, both protocols can use fewer quantum states or quantum resource requirements than other protocols. Finally, we analyze the security of both protocols.
A quantum high secure direct communication with authentication protocol is proposed by using single photons. The high security of the protocol is achieved on levels. The first level involves the verification of the quantum channel security by using fake photons. The authentication process is also ensured by the fake photons. The second level of security is given by the use of multiple polarization bases. The secret message is encoded in groups of photons; each single character of the message is associated with m (m≥7) photons. Thus, at least 27(128) characters will be encoded. In order to defeat the quantum teleportation attack, the string of bits associated to the secret message is encrypted with a secret string of bits by using XOR operator. Encryption of the sender's identity string and the receiver's identity string by the XOR operator with a random string of fake photons defends quantum man-in-the-middle attack efficiently. Quantum memory is required to implement our protocol. Storage of quantum information is a key element in quantum information processing and provides a more flexible, effective and efficient communication. Our protocol is feasible with current technologies.
Semiquantum secure direct communication (SQSDC) allows a quantum user and a classical user to exchange confidential messages without preshared keys. However, existing SQSDC protocols are predominantly unidirectional, and those supporting bidirectional transmission often lack rigorous security checking in both directions. Here, we propose a bidirectional SQSDC protocol utilizing four‐photon states composed of two Bell states. The first Bell state facilitates forward transmission via Z‐basis encoding and decoding, while the second Bell state enables reverse transmission through bit‐flip operations. Security is ensured by Bell‐state measurements on checking photon pairs prior to each decoding phase, with photon reordering eliminating the need for preshared keys. Security analysis confirms robustness against intercept‐resend, entanglement‐measurement, and Trojan horse attacks. The protocol achieves a transmission efficiency of 30% and requires only currently available technologies, making it experimentally feasible for practical semiquantum communication networks.
Abstract Recently, Yan et al . proposed a quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocol with authentication using single photons and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs ( Yan L. et al ., Comput. Mater. Contin. , 63 (2020) 1297). In this work, we show that the above QSDC protocol is secure neither against intercept-and-resend attack, nor against impersonation attack. With any of these two types of attacks, an eavesdropper can recover the full secret message. We also propose a suitable modification of this protocol, which not only defeats the above attacks, but also resists all other common attacks. Thus, our modified protocol provides an improvement over the existing one in terms of security.