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Quantum key management

Richard Hughes

Published Jan 23, 2023• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Innovations for quantum key management harness quantum communications to form a cryptography system within a public key infrastructure framework. In example implementations, the quantum key management innovations combine quantum key distribution and a quantum identification protocol with a Merkle signature scheme (using Winternitz one-time digital signatures or other one-time digital signatures, and Merkle hash trees) to constitute a cryptography system. More generally, the quantum key management innovations combine quantum key distribution and a quantum identification protocol with a hash-based signature scheme. This provides a secure way to identify, authenticate, verify, and exchange secret cryptographic keys. Features of the quantum key management innovations further include secure enrollment of users with a registration authority, as well as credential checking and revocation with a certificate authority, where the registration authority and/or certificate authority can be part of the same system as a trusted authority for quantum key distribution.

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Innovations for quantum key management harness quantum communications to form a cryptography system within a public key infrastructure framework. In example implementations, the quantum key management innovations combine quantum key distribution and a quantum identification protocol with a Merkle signature scheme (using Winternitz one-time digital signatures or other one-time digital signatures, and Merkle hash trees) to constitute a cryptography system. More generally, the quantum key management innovations combine quantum key distribution and a quantum identification protocol with a hash-based signature scheme. This provides a secure way to identify, authenticate, verify, and exchange secret cryptographic keys. Features of the quantum key management innovations further include secure enrollment of users with a registration authority, as well as credential checking and revocation with a certificate authority, where the registration authority and/or certificate authority can be part of the same system as a trusted authority for quantum key distribution.
The impending arrival of viable quantum computing is a major worry to modern-day identity management systems that mainly depend on classical public-key cryptography techniques such as RSA and elliptic curve. Such systems are the basis of secure infrastructure in digital identities such as authentication, digital signature and trust models based on certificates. These cryptographic primitives can be broken using quantum algorithms like Shor and Grover, compromising the privacy of credentials and sessions stored and authenticated on digital ecosystems. The paper provides the necessity of the transition of identity management systems to post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms that will be resistant to quantum attacks. It gives a general overview of quantum-exposed identity protocols, as well as a look at the up-and-coming PQC algorithms under development, with a special call to digital signature algorithms capable of identity provision, authentication, and credential lifecycle management. Moreover, the paper isolates the problems of integration which include key size overhead, legacy system compatibility and performance trade-offs and suggests integration to take place through the use of hybrid and decentralized framework to allow a secure migration. This study will form part of a strategic plan to a post-quantum identity infrastructure, with the long term reliability, validity, and withstanding of quantum-era vulnerabilities.
Quantum key distribution (QKD), invented by Bennett & Brassard (1984) based on previous work of Wiesner (1983), has been recognized as a key-technology of the upcoming decades. With various (experimental) quantum networks existing (cf. the reports of Poppe et al. (2008) and Elliott (2004)), questions regarding the efficient construction and management of such networks arise. While much has been achieved in proving security of QKD under various assumptions (trusted devices as proposed by Salvail et al. (2009) vs. non-trustworthy devices as discussed by Elliott (2008b)), and many cryptographic primitives have been transferred to the quantum setting by Buchmann et al. (2004) and Damgard et al. (2004), some questions are still waiting to be answered. With the invention of public-key cryptography, key management has become an issue of major importance. Authentication is equally crucial for QKD-enhanced links, but authenticating keys here is inherently different to the public key setting. Nevertheless, why should quantum cryptography not benefit from the lessons learnt in classic, particularly public-key, cryptography (one of which is the strict principle not to use one key in two different applications)? Elegant ideas for key management and authentication have arisen in public-key cryptography (such as identity-based cryptography invented by Shamir (1985) or certificateless cryptography discussed in Al-Riyami & Paterson (2003)). Are similarly elegant solutions imaginable for the problem of entity authentication in the quantum setting? More importantly, with the one-time pad (OTP) as the encryption of choice, the key demand equals the data transmission demand in terms of size, so an effective management of keys is crucial for a reasonable quality of service of quantum networks. The whole security can be at stake if (quantum-)key generators cannot cope with the flood of information and run empty, thus logically (in terms of secrecy) cutting the link.
Abstract Quantum key distribution (QKD) can provide information theoretically secure key exchange even in the era of quantum computers. However, QKD requires the classical channel to be authenticated, the current method for which is pre-sharing symmetric keys. For a QKD network of n users, this method requires Cn2=n(n−1)/2{C}_{n}^{2}=n(n-1)/2Cn2​=n(n−1)/2 C n 2 = n ( n − 1 ) / 2 pairs of symmetric keys to realize pairwise interconnection. In contrast, with the help of a mature public key infrastructure (PKI) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) with quantum-resistant security, each user only needs to apply for one digital certificate from a certificate authority (CA) to achieve efficient and secure authentication for QKD. We need to assume only the short-term security of the PQC algorithm to achieve long-term security of the distributed keys. Here, we experimentally verified the feasibility, efficiency, and stability of the PQC algorithm in QKD authentication, and demonstrated the advantages when new users join the QKD network. Using the PQC public-key infrastructure, the nodes need to mutually trust only the CA to authenticate each other. QKD combined with PQC authentication will greatly promote and extend the application prospects of quantum-safe communication.
Quantum cryptography has become a subject of widespread interest. In particular, quantum key distribution, which provides a secure key agreement by using quantum systems, is believed to be the most important application of quantum cryptography. Quantum key distribution has the potential to achieve the “unconditionally” secure infrastructure. We also have many cryptographic tools that are based on “modern cryptography” at the present time. They are being used in an effort to guarantee secure communication over open networks such as the Internet. Unfortunately, their ultimate efficacy is in doubt. Quantum key distribution systems are believed to be close to practical and commercial use. In this paper, we discuss what we should do to apply quantum cryptography to our communications. We also discuss how quantum key distribution can be combined with or used to replace cryptographic tools based on modern cryptography.
Network defense platforms rely on authenticated management channels between sensors, agents, and controllers. These channels are typically secured with TLS using RSA or elliptic-curve public-key primitives that a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer executing Shor's algorithm will break. The National Security Agency's Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0 mandates a transition to quantum-resistant cryptography for national security systems between 2030 and 2035, with hybrid classical-and-post-quantum constructions explicitly permitted during the transition. We present a hybrid attestation protocol for network management channels that combines Ed448 with ML-DSA-87 for mutual authentication and X448 with ML-KEM-1024 for session key establishment. An adversary must forge both a classical elliptic-curve signature and a lattice-based signature to impersonate a peer, and must recover both a classical elliptic-curve shared secret and a lattice-based encapsulated secret to decrypt session traffic. Authentication succeeds only when both signature verifications pass; session keys are derived from the concatenation of both shared secrets through HKDF-SHA-512. The protocol supports both trust-on-first-use key management and a PKI-backed enrollment mode under which peer public keys are authenticated by certificate chains from two parallel certificate authorities (Ed448 and ML-DSA-87). Deployments can select either mode, or a hybrid admitting both paths, allowing the protocol to fit air-gapped environments as well as deployments that require cryptographic rather than observational trust establishment. A cryptographic agility mechanism supports algorithm suite negotiation and hot-swap without device re-provisioning. We specify the protocol, analyze its security against classical and quantum adversaries, and report measured performance from a reference implementation in Python: the full handshake including mutual HELLO, hybrid key exchange, and session key derivation completes in approximately 330 milliseconds on commodity hardware using pure-Python post-quantum primitives. The protocol is one component of a larger network defense platform; a full system description appears in a companion paper.
The interest in quantum-based security methods has been growing rapidly in recent years. New implementations of quantum key distribution and new network services supported by this solution are being introduced. The reason behind the growing popularity of quantum cryptography is its unrivaled security level: all eavesdroppers can be revealed through the application of the laws of physics. First of all, the rules of quantum mechanics ensure that any measurement modifies the state of the transmitted quantum bit. This modification can be discovered by the sender and the receiver. This makes passive eavesdropping impossible. Using protocols such as BB84, network users are able to send a string of bits coded by the polarized photons. After that, they can establish secure cryptographic keys through an unsecure channel using different key distillation methods. Major ongoing challenges include the control and management of security in systems using quantum cryptography, as well as tailoring security to specific end user's requirements and services.