English

Attacks against a Simplified Experimentally Feasible Semiquantum Key Distribution Protocol

Quantum Physics 2018-07-20 v2 Cryptography and Security

Abstract

A semiquantum key distribution (SQKD) protocol makes it possible for a quantum party and a classical party to generate a secret shared key. However, many existing SQKD protocols are not experimentally feasible in a secure way using current technology. An experimentally feasible SQKD protocol, "classical Alice with a controllable mirror" (the "Mirror protocol"), has recently been presented and proved completely robust, but it is more complicated than other SQKD protocols. Here we prove a simpler variant of the Mirror protocol (the "simplified Mirror protocol") to be completely non-robust by presenting two possible attacks against it. Our results show that the complexity of the Mirror protocol is at least partly necessary for achieving robustness.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1806.06213,
  title  = {Attacks against a Simplified Experimentally Feasible Semiquantum Key Distribution Protocol},
  author = {Michel Boyer and Rotem Liss and Tal Mor},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.06213},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

9 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T02:31:57.915Z