Conference Key Agreement Research Articles

Conference key agreement based on continuous-variable quantum key distribution

We propose a conference key agreement protocol that satisfies future demands for secure communication, which requires that all participants contribute to the generation of the shared key and that any nontrivial subset of participants cannot determine the shared key alone. We construct a basic network topology which supports three participants communication by connecting to a distrusted intermediate station via insecure links. The participants independently decide whether to send a quantum signal pulse or a local oscillator pulse to the intermediate station at any time window i. We derive the secret key rate from our protocol, and a novel encoded strategy is adopted. The protocol is a promising step towards conference key agreement.

Experimental quantum conference key agreement.

Quantum networks will provide multinode entanglement enabling secure communication on a global scale. Traditional quantum communication protocols consume pair-wise entanglement, which is suboptimal for distributed tasks involving more than two users. Here, we demonstrate quantum conference key agreement, a cryptography protocol leveraging multipartite entanglement to efficiently create identical keys between N users with up to N-1 rate advantage in constrained networks. We distribute four-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states, generated by high-brightness telecom photon-pair sources, over optical fiber with combined lengths of up to 50 km and then perform multiuser error correction and privacy amplification. Under finite-key analysis, we establish 1.5 × 106 bits of secure key, which are used to encrypt and securely share an image between four users in a conference transmission. Our work highlights a previously unexplored protocol tailored for multinode networks leveraging low-noise, long-distance transmission of GHZ states that will pave the way for future multiparty quantum information processing applications.

Coherent one-way quantum conference key agreement based on twin field

Quantum conference key agreement (CKA) enables key sharing among multiple trusted users with information-theoretic security. Currently, the key rates of most quantum CKA protocols suffer from the limit of the total efficiency among quantum channels. Inspired by the coherent one-way and twin-field quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, we propose a quantum CKA protocol of three users. Exploiting coherent states with intensity 0 and μ to encode logic bits, our protocol can break the limit. Additionally, the requirements of phase randomization and multiple intensity modulation are removed in our protocol, making its experimental demonstration simple.

Genuine multipartite entanglement is not a precondition for secure conference key agreement

The authors show that in a Conference Key Agreement protocol the resource state used at each round of the protocol is not required to be Genuine Multipartite Entangled in order to establish a secret conference key.

Entropy Bounds for Multiparty Device-Independent Cryptography

Multiparty quantum cryptography based on distributed entanglement will find its natural application in the upcoming quantum networks. The security of many multipartite device-independent (DI) protocols, such as DI conference key agreement, relies on bounding the von Neumann entropy of the parties' outcomes conditioned on the eavesdropper's information, given the violation of a multipartite Bell inequality. We consider three parties testing the Mermin-Ardehali-Belinskii-Klyshko (MABK) inequality and certify the privacy of their outcomes by bounding the conditional entropy of a single party's outcome and the joint conditional entropy of two parties' outcomes. From the former bound, we show that genuine multipartite entanglement is necessary to certify the privacy of a party's outcome, while the latter significantly improve previous results. We obtain the entropy bounds thanks to two general results of independent interest. The first one drastically simplifies the quantum setup of an $N$-partite Bell scenario. The second one provides an upper bound on the violation of the MABK inequality by an arbitrary $N$-qubit state, as a function of the state's parameters.

High Key Rate Quantum Conference Key Agreement With Unconditional Security

Quantum cryptography is a major ingredient of the future quantum internet that promises various secure communication tasks. Quantum conference key agreement (CKA) is an important cryptographic primitive of quantum cryptography, which provides the conference key among multiple users simultaneously. However, quantum CKA is currently far from practical application due to the low conference key rate. Here, we propose a quantum CKA protocol of three users with information-theoretic security. Our protocol only requires phase-randomized weak coherent sources and threshold single-photon detectors, and is anticipated to be experimentally demonstrated over 600 km under current technology. Our scheme can be widely implemented in the approaching large-scale quantum network.

Anonymous Quantum Conference Key Agreement

Conference Key Agreement (CKA) is a cryptographic effort of multiple parties to establish a shared secret key. In future quantum networks, generating secret keys in an anonymous way is of tremendous importance for parties that want to keep their shared key secret and at the same time protect their own identity. We provide a definition of anonymity for general protocols and present a CKA protocol that is provably anonymous under realistic adversarial scenarios. We base our protocol on shared Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, which have been proposed as more efficient resources for CKA protocols, compared to bipartite entangled resources. The existence of secure and anonymous protocols based on multipartite entangled states provides a new insight on their potential as resources and paves the way for further applications.

Quantum Conference Key Agreement: A Review

AbstractConference key agreement (CKA), or multipartite key distribution, is a cryptographic task where more than two parties wish to establish a common secret key. A composition of bipartite quantum key distribution protocols can accomplish this task. However, the existence of multipartite quantum correlations allows for new and potentially more efficient protocols, to be applied in future quantum networks. Here, the existing quantum CKA protocols based on multipartite entanglement are reviewed, both in the device‐dependent and the device‐independent scenario.

Phase-Matching Quantum Cryptographic Conferencing

Quantum cryptographic conferencing (QCC) holds promise for distributing information-theoretic secure keys among multiple users over long distance. Limited by the fragility of Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state, QCC networks based on directly distributing GHZ states at long distance still face big challenge. Another two potential approaches are measurement device independent QCC and conference key agreement with single-photon interference, which was proposed based on the post-selection of GHZ states and the post-selection of W state, respectively. However, implementations of the former protocol are still heavily constrained by the transmission rate $\eta$ of optical channels and the complexity of the setups for post-selecting GHZ states. Meanwhile, the latter protocol cannot be cast to a measurement device independent prepare-and-measure scheme. Combining the idea of post-selecting GHZ state and recently proposed twin-field quantum key distribution protocols, we report a QCC protocol based on weak coherent state interferences named phase-matching quantum cryptographic conferencing, which is immune to all detector side-channel attacks. The proposed protocol can improve the key generation rate from $\mathrm{O}(\eta^N)$ to $\mathrm{O}(\eta^{N-1})$ compared with the measurement device independent QCC protocols. Meanwhile, it can be easily scaled up to multiple parties due to its simple setup.

Genuine multipartite Bell inequality for device-independent conference key agreement

In this work, we present a new class of genuine multipartite Bell inequalities, that is particularly designed for multipartite device-independent (DI) quantum key distribution (QKD), also called DI conference key agreement. We prove the classical bounds of this inequality, discuss how to maximally violate it and show its usefulness by calculating achievable conference key rates via the violation of this Bell inequality. To this end, semidefinite programming techniques based on [Nat. Commun. 2, 238 (2011)] are employed and extended to the multipartite scenario. Our Bell inequality represents a nontrivial multipartite generalization of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality and is motivated by the extension of the bipartite Bell state to the n-partite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state. For DIQKD, we suggest an honest implementation for any number of parties and study the effect of noise on achievable asymptotic conference key rates.

Design of group key agreement protocol using neural key synchronization

Security is considered as an important anxiety for applications which involve communication (more than two) over public networks. Group key management is one of the essential building blocks in securing group communication. Most of the researches in group key management are based on the general idea of the original Diffie–Hellman (DH) key agreement protocol. The major drawback of generalized DH for multi-party is the fact that there are expensive exponential operations to be carried out. The factors that influence the capability of a Group Key agreement (GKA) protocol are communication rounds and the computational cost. In this paper, the concept of neural cryptography, based on the mutual learning of Tree Parity Machine (TPM), is extended to operations to be carried out. The factors that influence the capability of a Group Key agreement (GKA) protocol are communication rounds and the computational cost. In this paper, the concept of neural cryptography, based on the mutual learning of Tree Parity Machine (TPM), is extended to obtain a group key. The group key has been generated for an interactive conference key agreement system, where the system authenticates the users and allows them to compute their own session key, and also it has been recognized that the neural network based GKA protocols achieve key freshness and key secrecy. The quantity demand and investment in research and development, while the other model focuses on a more realistic relationship between the quantity demand and the price.

Conference key agreement with single-photon interference

The intense research activity on Twin-Field (TF) quantum key distribution (QKD) is motivated by the fact that two users can establish a secret key by relying on single-photon interference in an untrusted node. Thanks to this feature, variants of the protocol have been proven to beat the point-to-point private capacity of a lossy quantum channel. Here we generalize the main idea of the TF-QKD protocol introduced by Curty et al to the multipartite scenario, by devising a conference key agreement (CKA) where the users simultaneously distill a secret conference key through single-photon interference. The new CKA is better suited to high-loss scenarios than previous multipartite QKD schemes and it employs for the first time a W-class state as its entanglement resource. We prove the protocol’s security in the finite-key regime and under general attacks. We also compare its performance with the iterative use of bipartite QKD protocols and show that our truly multipartite scheme can be advantageous, depending on the loss and on the state preparation.

Comment on “Fully device-independent conference key agreement”

In this manuscript we discuss the device-independent conference key agreement (DICKA) protocol [Phys. Rev. A 97, 022307 (2018)]. We show that the suggested honest implementation fails, because perfect correlated measurement results and the required Bell-inequality violation cannot be achieved simultaneously, in contradiction to what is claimed. We further show via semidefinite programming that there cannot exist any suitable honest implementation in the tripartite setting, rendering the DICKA protocol incomplete.

Reply to “Comment on ‘Fully device-independent conference key agreement' ”

In this Reply we correct a mistake that we made in the correctness proofs of our protocol. Specifically, the Bell inequality we used ensures security but does not allow us to produce a key. In this Reply we explain and correct this mistake by adjusting the Bell inequality we used in the proof. Incidentally, this correction leads to slightly better asymptotic key rates. Importantly, none of the conclusions of the article are affected.

Fully device-independent conference key agreement

We present the first security analysis of conference key agreement (CKA) in the most adversarial model of device independence (DI). Our protocol can be implemented {by any experimental setup} that is capable of performing Bell tests (specifically, we introduce the "Parity-CHSH" inequality), and security can in principle be obtained for any violation of the Parity-CHSH inequality. We use a direct connection between the $N$-partite Parity-CHSH inequality and the CHSH inequality. Namely, the Parity-CHSH inequality can be considered as a CHSH inequality or another CHSH inequality (equivalent up to relabelling) depending on the parity of the output of $N-2$ of the parties. We compare the asymptotic key rate for DICKA to the case where the parties use $N-1$ DIQKD protocols in order to generate a common key. We show that for some regime of noise the DICKA protocol leads to better rates.

Interdomain Identity-Based Key Agreement Schemes

In order to simplify key management, two-party and three-party key agreement schemes based on user identities have been proposed recently. Multiparty (including more than three parties) key agreement protocols, which also are called conference key schemes, can be applied to distributed systems and wireless environments, such as ad hoc networks, for the purpose of multiparty secure communication. However, it is hard to extend two- or three-party schemes to multiparty ones with the guarantee of efficiency and security. In addition to the above two properties, interdomain environments should also be considered in key agreement systems due to diversified network domains. However, only few identity-based multiparty conference key agreement schemes for single domain environments and none for interdomain environments were proposed in the literature and they did not satisfy all of the security attributes such as forward secrecy and withstanding impersonation. In this paper, we will propose a novel efficient single domain identity-based multiparty conference key scheme and extend it to an interdomain one. Finally, we prove that the proposed schemes satisfy the required security attributes via formal methods.

Security weakness of Tseng’s fault-tolerant conference-key agreement protocol

A fault-tolerant conference-key agreement protocol establishes a shared key among participants of a conference even when some malicious participants disrupt key agreement processes. Recently, Tseng proposed a new fault-tolerant conference-key agreement protocol that only requires a constant message size and a small number of rounds. In this paper, we show that the Tseng’s protocol cannot provide forward and backward confidentiality during a conference session for the proposed attack method. We also show that a simple countermeasure—re-randomizing short-term keys of some participants—to avoid the proposed attack can be broken by extending the proposed attack method.

Conference key agreement protocol with non-interactive fault-tolerance over broadcast network

Most conventional conference key agreement protocols have not been concerned with a practical situation. There may exist some malicious conferees who attempt to block conference initiation for some purposes, e.g. commercial, political or military benefit. Instances where conference must be launched immediately due to emergency, efficient detection of malicious behavior would be needed. Recently, Tzeng (IEEE Trans. Comput. 51(4):373–379, 2002) proposed a fault-tolerant conference key agreement protocol to address the issue where a conference key can be established among conferees even though malicious conferees exist. However, his protocol might be complex and inefficient during fault-detection. In the case where a malicious conferee exists and a fault-tolerant mechanism is launched, complicated interactions between conferees will be required. In this paper, we introduce a novel strategy, where any malicious conferee may be identified and removed from the conferee list without any interaction. With such a non-interactive fault-tolerance, conferences could be established and started efficiently. A complete example of our protocol will be given to describe the fascinating fault-tolerance. We analyse the security of our protocol regarding four aspects, i.e. correctness, fault-tolerance, active attack and passive attack. The comparisons of performance between our protocol and that of Tzeng are also shown. As a whole, the advantage of our protocol is superior to that of Tzeng under the situation where malicious conferees exist.

A conference key agreement protocol with fault-tolerant capability

Secure communication is of utmost importance to participants of Internet conferences. Secure communication thwarts eavesdropping. In an Internet conference, all conference participants together establish a common conference key to enable multi-party and secure exchange of messages. However, malicious conference participants may try to obtain the conference key through unfair means, and this could result in the generation of different conference keys. This paper is intended as a proposal of a new form of conference key agreement protocol. It emphasizes the filtering of malicious participants at the beginning of the conference to ensure that all participants obtain the same conference key. The proposed method also has fault-tolerant capability. Efficiency and security of a protocol is important in practice. The security of the proposed protocol is based on discrete logarithm problem assumption. The protocol is executed in computationally secure environment. The secret information of a user cannot be determined from its corresponding public information and therefore ensures privacy. Since efficiency of a protocol depends on low computation cost, the protocol attempts to achieve lower computation cost without compromising on security.

Multi-partite quantum cryptographic protocols with noisy GHZ states

We propose a wide class of distillation schemes for multi-partite entangled states that are CSS-states. Our proposal provides not only superior efficiency, but also new insights on the connection between CSS-states and bipartite graph states. We then apply our distillation schemes to the tri-partite case for three cryptographic tasks---namely, (a) conference key agreement, (b) quantum sharing of classical secrets and (c) third-man cryptography. Moreover, we construct ``prepare-and-measure'' protocols for the above three cryptographic tasks which can be implemented with the generation of only a single entangled pair at a time. This gives significant simplification over previous experimental implementations which require two entangled pairs generated simultaneously. We also study the yields of those protocols and the threshold values of the fidelity above which the protocols can function securely. Rather surprisingly, our protocols will function securely even when the initial state does not violate the standard Bell-inequalities for GHZ states.