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IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT)

Information Theoretic Analysis of a Quantum PUF

Kumar Nilesh, Christian Deppe, Holger Boche

Published Jul 7, 2024• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An information-theoretic model is presented for a general quantum physically unclonable function (QPUF) that generates a bipartite classical-quantum output. We first define achievable secret key rate versus privacy leakage rate pairs featuring perfect secrecy and uniform distribution of the secret key. To analyze the secret key generation from this QPUF model, we focus on two cases: first, without any constraints on the storage of public information, i.e., the helper data, and second, with rate constraints on it. This, in turn, provides a solution for the case of privacy leakage constraint. We calculate the maximum secret key that a QPUF can generate and derive the capacity region corresponding to this definition of achievability.

DOI
10.1109/isit57864.2024.10619408

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Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) have emerged as critical primitives for secure authentication and key generation. However, classical PUFs are increasingly vulnerable to machine learning and quantum-enabled attacks. Quantum PUFs, leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics, provide a promising alternative offering information-theoretic security. In this work, we present an information-theoretic framework for two key applications of QPUFs: secret key generation and secure data storage. We rigorously characterize the trade-offs between achievable key and storage rates under various privacy leakage constraints—unconditional, conditional, and zero-leakage—extending classical results into the quantum domain. We derive single-letter capacity expressions based on Holevo information and analyze the impact of shared private randomness on achieving zero privacy leakage. Our results establish fundamental performance limits for QPUF-based security systems and lay the foundation for cryptographic key generation and storage protocols in future quantum-resilient communication infrastructures.
An information-theoretic analysis of secure authentication based on Quantum Physically Unclonable Functions (QPUF) is presented in this paper. The proposed model employs a secret key generated through QPUF to authenticate pre-enrolled user and device identities while maintaining secrecy and limiting privacy leakage. We analyze the system's robustness against an active adversary who exploits publicly available data to impersonate legitimate users with fraudulent inputs. Our analysis focuses on characterizing the capacity region of the adversary's false acceptance exponent alongside the privacy leakage under reliability conditions. We further demonstrate that the achievable capacity region in the quantum domain surpasses that of classical systems. Additionally, we derive an optimal trade-off among the false acceptance exponent, public storage rate, and privacy leakage rate, offering key insights into the system's asymptotic performance.
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