Ghost key distribution under mutual authentication mechanism

Abstract

Most existing ghost-imaging-based cryptographic key-distribution protocols involve one-way authentication, and the lack of a mutual authentication mechanism can easily lead to the tampering of key information. In this study, we employed ghost imaging as an encryption transmission to realise multiparty key distribution under a mutual authentication mechanism. This protocol achieved identity authentication using shared image synthesis based on cumulative visual cryptography and could effectively determine the communication channel threatened by an attack. Simulation and experimental results verified that the protocol was capable of resisting various attacks—such as exhaustive and tampering attacks— and exhibited good performance in a noisy environment. The proposed protocol is a novel key-distribution technology in the non-quantum field and can be applied in wireless key distribution and secure optical communication.