Quantum key distribution with an unknown and untrusted source
- 20 May 2008
- journal article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review A
- Vol. 77 (5)
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.77.052327
Abstract
The security of a standard bidirectional “plug-and-play” quantum key distribution (QKD) system has been an open question for a long time. This is mainly because its source is equivalently controlled by an eavesdropper, which means the source is unknown and untrusted. Qualitative discussion on this subject has been made previously. In this paper, we solve this question directly by presenting the quantitative security analysis on a general class of QKD protocols whose sources are unknown and untrusted. The securities of standard Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol, decoy state protocol, and one-decoy state protocol, with unknown and untrusted sources are rigorously proved. We derive rigorous lower bounds to the secure key generation rates of the above three protocols. Our numerical simulation results show that QKD with an untrusted source gives a key generation rate that is close to that with a trusted source.
Keywords
Other Versions
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- Experimental Demonstration of Free-Space Decoy-State Quantum Key Distribution over 144 kmPhysical Review Letters, 2007
- Long-Distance Decoy-State Quantum Key Distribution in Optical FiberPhysical Review Letters, 2007
- Unconditionally secure one-way quantum key distribution using decoy pulsesApplied Physics Letters, 2007
- Decoy-state quantum key distribution with two-way classical postprocessingPhysical Review A, 2006
- Practical decoy state for quantum key distributionPhysical Review A, 2005
- Decoy State Quantum Key DistributionPhysical Review Letters, 2005
- Beating the Photon-Number-Splitting Attack in Practical Quantum CryptographyPhysical Review Letters, 2005
- Quantum key distribution over 122 km of standard telecom fiberApplied Physics Letters, 2004
- Quantum key distribution over 67 km with a plug&play systemNew Journal of Physics, 2002
- Unconditional Security of Quantum Key Distribution over Arbitrarily Long DistancesScience, 1999