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Experimental symmetric private information retrieval with measurement-device-independent quantum network

Chao Wang, Wen Yu Kon, Hong Jie Ng, Charles Ci Wen Lim

Published Jan 1, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the first realisation of a provably-secure symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR) scheme supported by a quantum-secure key-exchange network, offering secure retrieval of fingerprint data from a database with 800 entries.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_fs.2023.ff1a.3

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Secure information retrieval is an essential task in today's highly digitised society. In some applications, it may be necessary that user query's privacy and database content's security are enforced. For these settings, symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR) could be employed, but its implementation is known to be demanding, requiring a private key-exchange network as the base layer. Here, we report for the first time a realisation of provably-secure SPIR supported by a quantum-secure key-exchange network. The SPIR scheme looks at biometric security, offering secure retrieval of 582-byte fingerprint files from a database with 800 entries. Our experimental results clearly demonstrate the feasibility of SPIR with quantum secure communications, thereby opening up new possibilities in secure distributed data storage and cloud computing over the future Quantum Internet.
Secure information retrieval is an essential task in today's highly digitised society. In some applications, it may be necessary that user query's privacy and database content's security are enforced. For these settings, symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR) could be employed, but its implementation is known to be demanding, requiring a private key-exchange network as the base layer. Here, we report for the first time a realisation of provably-secure SPIR supported by a quantum-secure key-exchange network. The SPIR scheme looks at biometric security, offering secure retrieval of 582-byte fingerprint files from a database with 800 entries. Our experimental results clearly demonstrate the feasibility of SPIR with quantum secure communications, thereby opening up new possibilities in secure distributed data storage and cloud computing over the future Quantum Internet.
Private information retrieval (PIR) is a database query protocol that provides user privacy in that the user can learn a particular entry of the database of his interest but his query would be hidden from the data centre. Symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR) takes PIR further by additionally offering database privacy, where the user cannot learn any additional entries of the database. Unconditionally secure SPIR solutions with multiple databases are known classically, but are unrealistic because they require long shared secret keys between the parties for secure communication and shared randomness in the protocol. Here, we propose using quantum key distribution (QKD) instead for a practical implementation, which can realise both the secure communication and shared randomness requirements. We prove that QKD maintains the security of the SPIR protocol and that it is also secure against any external eavesdropper. We also show how such a classical-quantum system could be implemented practically, using the example of a two-database SPIR protocol with keys generated by measurement device-independent QKD. Through key rate calculations, we show that such an implementation is feasible at the metropolitan level with current QKD technology.
Symmetric private information retrieval (SPIR) protocol is proposed for users to retrieve items from a database holder without revealing the retrieval address, and meanwhile the users cannot learn any additional entries of the database. Quantum key distribution (QKD)-based quantum private queries (QPQs) are the most practical protocols for the SPIR problem. However, most existing protocols assume ideal devices. To overcome this drawback, we propose a device independent QPQ protocol based on QKD with imperfect sources and detectors. By constructing the semi-definite programming optimization problem, we give the CHSH test threshold and prove the correctness of our protocol. We use the shift and permutation post-processing technique to further improve the security. We compare the performance of our protocol with a recent full device-independent QPQ. and discuss their relative advantages. The simulation results show that our protocol improves database security, user privacy and efficiency. The number of final key bits that Alice knows is close to 1, and Bob’s guessing probability is below 0.15 in our protocol. Moreover, the proposed scheme can be used for any entanglement-based QPQ protocol to remove trust on the devices.