Abstract
Quantum cryptography—the application of quantum information processing and quantum computing techniques to cryptography has been extensively investigated. Two major directions of quantum cryptography are quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum encryption, with the former focusing on secure key distribution and the latter focusing on encryption using quantum algorithms. In contrast to the success of the QKD, the development of quantum encryption algorithms is limited to designs of mostly one-time pads (OTP) that are unsuitable for most communication needs. In this work we propose a non-OTP quantum encryption design utilizing a quantum state creation process to encrypt messages. As essentially a non-OTP quantum block cipher the method stands out against existing methods with the following features: 1. complex key-ciphertext relation (i.e. confusion) and complex plaintext-ciphertext relation (i.e. diffusion); 2. mode of operation design for practical encryption on multiple blocks. These features provide key reusability and protection against eavesdropping and standard cryptanalytic attacks.
Highlights
Quantum cryptography—the application of quantum information processing and quantum computing techniques to cryptography has been extensively investigated
In contrast to the well accepted success of the quantum key distribution (QKD), the development of quantum encryption algorithms is rather limited to designs[17,18,19] that are mostly quantum versions of the one-time pad (OTP)
We introduce the concept of mode of operation from classical cryptography into quantum encryption to enable practical encryption on arbitrary number of blocks of plaintexts
Summary
Quantum cryptography—the application of quantum information processing and quantum computing techniques to cryptography has been extensively investigated. We introduce the concepts of confusion (complex key-ciphertext relation) and diffusion (complex plaintext-ciphertext relation) from classical cryptography into quantum encryption and propose a novel encryption process that creates both confusion and diffusion. This ensures that small differences in the plaintext lead to substantial changes in the ciphertext or vice versa, such that the inability of a potential adversary to analyze the ciphertext state is amplified. The adaptation of confusion, diffusion and mode of operation from classical cryptography into quantum cryptography provides key reusability and stronger security against standard cryptanalytic attacks and establishes new design principles for the systematic development of quantum encryption methods which may lead to improved quantum cryptographic systems beyond the particular design of the current study
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