Secure direct communication using entanglement

Secure direct communication using entanglement

(October 24, 2018) | Kim Bostroem
The paper presents a novel communication protocol based on entangled qubits, enabling secure direct communication without the need for a shared secret key. This deterministic protocol ensures that every qubit carries message information, and it operates with a quantum efficiency of 1 bit per transmitted qubit. The security of the protocol against both active and passive eavesdropping attacks is guaranteed, with a detection rate of at least 25% for active attacks. The protocol, referred to as the "BEKW protocol," differs from traditional quantum cryptography by directly transmitting information from Alice to Bob without the need for a secret key. It achieves high quantum efficiency and reliable security through the use of entanglement. Alice prepares Bell pairs and sends one qubit (the travel qubit) while keeping the other (the home qubit). Bob performs a random unitary operation on the travel qubit and sends it back to Alice, who then performs a Bell measurement on both qubits to recover the message. The protocol includes a mechanism to detect active attacks through a "control mode" where Bob randomly switches to this mode with probability \(\lambda_c\). In control mode, Bob measures the travel qubit in a random basis and sends the result to Alice, who measures her home qubit in the same basis. If the correlation between the measurements is incorrect, indicating an eavesdropper, the communication is aborted. This process ensures that Eve cannot adapt her strategy, and the probability of detection is at least 25%. The protocol is secure against weak man-in-the-middle attacks, but not against strong attacks where Eve controls the public channel. The paper also discusses passive attacks, such as known plaintext attacks, and emphasizes the importance of a public channel to synchronize Alice and Bob in control mode. The author acknowledges discussions with several researchers and acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).The paper presents a novel communication protocol based on entangled qubits, enabling secure direct communication without the need for a shared secret key. This deterministic protocol ensures that every qubit carries message information, and it operates with a quantum efficiency of 1 bit per transmitted qubit. The security of the protocol against both active and passive eavesdropping attacks is guaranteed, with a detection rate of at least 25% for active attacks. The protocol, referred to as the "BEKW protocol," differs from traditional quantum cryptography by directly transmitting information from Alice to Bob without the need for a secret key. It achieves high quantum efficiency and reliable security through the use of entanglement. Alice prepares Bell pairs and sends one qubit (the travel qubit) while keeping the other (the home qubit). Bob performs a random unitary operation on the travel qubit and sends it back to Alice, who then performs a Bell measurement on both qubits to recover the message. The protocol includes a mechanism to detect active attacks through a "control mode" where Bob randomly switches to this mode with probability \(\lambda_c\). In control mode, Bob measures the travel qubit in a random basis and sends the result to Alice, who measures her home qubit in the same basis. If the correlation between the measurements is incorrect, indicating an eavesdropper, the communication is aborted. This process ensures that Eve cannot adapt her strategy, and the probability of detection is at least 25%. The protocol is secure against weak man-in-the-middle attacks, but not against strong attacks where Eve controls the public channel. The paper also discusses passive attacks, such as known plaintext attacks, and emphasizes the importance of a public channel to synchronize Alice and Bob in control mode. The author acknowledges discussions with several researchers and acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
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Understanding Deterministic secure direct communication using entanglement.