Quantum Authentication Research Articles

IoMT-Based Smart Healthcare Detection System Driven by Quantum Blockchain and Quantum Neural Network.

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is the main criterion for arrhythmia detection. As a means of identification, ECG leakage seems to be a common occurrence due to the development of the Internet of Medical Things. The advent of the quantum era makes it difficult for classical blockchain technology to provide security for ECG data storage. Therefore, from the perspective of safety and practicality, this article proposes a quantum arrhythmia detection system called QADS, which achieves secure storage and sharing of ECG data based on quantum blockchain technology. Furthermore, a quantum neural network is used in QADS to recognize abnormal ECG data, which contributes to further cardiovascular disease diagnosis. Each quantum block stores the hash of the current and previous block to construct a quantum block network. The new quantum blockchain algorithm introduces a controlled quantum walk hash function and a quantum authentication protocol to guarantee legitimacy and security while creating new blocks. In addition, this article constructs a hybrid quantum convolutional neural network called HQCNN to extract the temporal features of ECG to detect abnormal heartbeats. The simulation experimental results show that HQCNN achieves an average training and testing accuracy of 94.7% and 93.6%. And the detection stability is much higher than classical CNN with the same structure. HQCNN also has certain robustness under the perturbation of quantum noise. Besides, this article demonstrates through mathematical analysis that the proposed quantum blockchain algorithm has strong security and can effectively resist various quantum attacks, such as external attacks, Entanglement-Measure attack and Interception-Measurement-Repeat attack.

Quantum Authentication Evolution: Novel Approaches for Securing Quantum Key Distribution.

This study introduces a novel approach to bolstering quantum key distribution (QKD) security by implementing swift classical channel authentication within the SARG04 and BB84 protocols. We propose mono-authentication, a pioneering paradigm employing quantum-resistant signature algorithms-specifically, CRYSTALS-DILITHIUM and RAINBOW-to authenticate solely at the conclusion of communication. Our numerical analysis comprehensively examines the performance of these algorithms across various block sizes (128, 192, and 256 bits) in both block-based and continuous photon transmission scenarios. Through 100 iterations of simulations, we meticulously assess the impact of noise levels on authentication efficacy. Our results notably highlight CRYSTALS-DILITHIUM's consistent outperformance of RAINBOW, with signature overheads of approximately 0.5% for the QKD-BB84 protocol and 0.4% for the QKD-SARG04 one, when the quantum bit error rate (QBER) is augmented up to 8%. Moreover, our study unveils a correlation between higher security levels and increased authentication times, with CRYSTALS-DILITHIUM maintaining superior efficiency across all key rates up to 10,000 kb/s. These findings underscore the substantial cost and complexity reduction achieved by mono-authentication, particularly in noisy environments, paving the way for more resilient and efficient quantum communication systems.

A security-enhanced authentication scheme for quantum-key-distribution (QKD) enabled Internet of vehicles in multi-cloud environment

The Internet of vehicles (IoV) is an essential part of modern intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In the ITS, intelligent connected vehicle can access a variety of latency-sensitive cloud services through the vulnerable wireless communication channel, which could lead to security and privacy issues. To prevent access by malicious nodes, a large number of authentication schemes have been proposed. However, with the diversification of cloud services and the rapid development of quantum computing, there are many drawbacks remain, including timeliness of authentication and resisting quantum computing. In light of this, we propose a lattice-based secure and efficient multi-cloud authentication and key agreement scheme for quantum key distribution (QKD) enabled IoV. Its features are as follows: i) Security-enhanced and Efficient Authentication: We combine the lattice-based lightweight signatures and quantum authentication keys to guarantee security-enhanced authentication. Meanwhile, we propose the quantum security service cloud (QSC) to manage the authentication of all vehicles and cloud server providers (CSPs) to reduce the authentication rounds and improve efficiency. ii) Extended Quantum Key Distribution (eQKD): In wireless networks, quantum key agreement is achieved through the pre-filled quantum keys. In wired networks, quantum key is accomplished by QKD with Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol. Furthermore, formal and informal security demonstrates that the scheme could resist potential security attacks. The performance comparison illustrates that our scheme could decrease the computational overhead by 27.23%-81.78% and authentication rounds by 81.34%-93.10%.

A privacy preserving quantum authentication scheme for secure data sharing in wireless body area networks

A privacy preserving quantum authentication scheme for secure data sharing in wireless body area networks

QAKA: A novel quantum authentication and key agreement (QAKA) protocol using quantum entanglement for secure communication among IoT devices

AbstractThe constant evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) concept involves the idea that all elements in the global network communication are reachable without the need for human intervention. In this context, the paramount concern is security, aiming to safeguard IoT communication against unauthorized access. According to the analysis, the security of the IoT communication framework relies on traditional cryptographic schemes like the RSA algorithm. Nevertheless, the latest developments in quantum computing and information processing pose a significant threat to these established schemes. Motivated by this fact, in this article, we proposed a novel quantum authentication and key agreement (QAKA) protocol that provides unconditional security against any classical and futuristic quantum threats. Our protocol ensures secure key agreement and mutual authentication based on quantum hashing with quantum passwords and quantum key distribution. The proposed scheme utilizes quantum teleportation and Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger states for secure data transfer among entities. Our work is simulated using the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications tool to prove our protocol's formal correctness and security. The Burrows, Abadi, and Needham logic is applied to prove the goal of our protocol. Random oracle model for formal security analysis is presented in our work. Our protocol is also informally analyzed, considering the characteristics such as correctness, security against repudiation and the impossibility of cloning. The proposed protocol is compared with the related protocols in terms of various security features such as replay attacks, man‐in‐middle attacks and futuristic quantum attacks. Finally, the performance of the proposed protocol is presented, revealing superior efficacy when compared with classical authentication schemes and quantum protocols.

Quantum authentication method based on key-controlled maximally mixed quantum state encryption

Quantum authentication is a fundamental first step that ensures secure quantum communication. Although various quantum authentication methods have been proposed recently, their implementation efficiency is limited. This paper proposes a key-controlled maximally mixed quantum state encryption (MMQSE) method using only a single qubit, unitary operation, minimized quantum transmissions, and a single qubit measurement, which improves implementation feasibility and operation efficiency. We applied it to representative quantum authentication applications, namely, quantum identity and message authentication. The security of our authentication schemes was verified by analyzing the relationship between the integral ratio of Uhlmann’s fidelity and probability of successful eavesdropping. Moreover, we demonstrate the higher authentication efficiency of the proposed scheme in a real quantum-channel noise environment. The upper bound of the valid noise rate was quantified using the integral ratio of Uhlmann’s fidelity in a noise environment. Finally, the optimal number of authentication sequences was estimated.

Quantum identity authentication using a Hadamard gate based on a GHZ state

According to the properties of the Hadamard gate and GHZ state, a quantum authentication protocol with transferable information is proposed. This protocol has higher security and integrity. Specifically, the direct appearance of the key and the transmitted information are not required for both quantum and classical channels. In addition, the protocol realizes the key update in the process of identity authentication, which can automatically generate the key needed for the next information transmission. We expect that our protocol can be extended to many other quantum communication technologies.

A quantum blockchain-enabled framework for secure private electronic medical records in Internet of Medical Things

There is a rising need for healthcare as a result of rising public awareness of health issues. Electronic medical records include extremely confidential and sensitive information, and blockchain technology can enable the safe exchange of these records across various medical organizations. The current blockchain system is susceptible to quantum computer attacks, nevertheless, as a result of the advent of quantum computers. This research designs a novel distributed quantum electronic medical record system and suggests a new private quantum blockchain network based on security considerations. The blocks in this quantum blockchain’s data structure are linked via entangled states. The time stamp is automatically formed by connecting quantum blocks with controlled activities, which lowers the amount of storage space needed. Each block’s hash value is recorded using just one qubit. The quantum information processing is detailed in depth in the quantum electronic medical record protocol. Every medical record can be tracked, and the security and privacy of electronic medical records in Internet of Medical Things systems can be guaranteed. The protocol also ditches the traditional encryption and digital signature algorithms in favor of a quantum authentication system. According to the mathematical analysis, the quantum blockchain network has strong security against attacks from quantum computers since it can withstand External attack, Intercept-Measure-Repeat attack and Entanglement-Measure attack. The quantum circuit diagram for deriving the hash value is provided, along with the correctness and traceability analysis of the quantum block. The comparison between the proposed quantum blockchain model and a few other quantum blockchain models is also included.

Enhanced Security of Software-defined Network and Network Slice Through Hybrid Quantum Key Distribution Protocol

Software-defined networking (SDN) has revolutionized the world of technology as networks have become more flexible, dynamic and programmable. The ability to conduct network slicing in 5G networks is one of the most crucial features of SDN implementation. Although network programming provides new security solutions of traditional networks, SDN and network slicing also have security issues, an important one being the weaknesses related to openflow channel between the data plane and controller as the network can be attacked via the openflow channel and exploit communications with the control plane. Our work proposes a solution to provide adequate security for openflow messages through using a hybrid key consisting of classical and quantum key distribution protocols to provide double security depending on the computational complexity and physical properties of quantum. To achieve this goal, the hybrid key used with transport layer security protocol to provide confidentiality, integrity and quantum authentication to secure openflow channel. We experimentally based on the SDN-testbed and network slicing to show the workflow of exchanging quantum and classical keys between the control plane and data plane and our results showed the effectiveness of the hybrid key to enhance the security of the transport layer security protocol. Thereby achieving adequate security for openflow channel against classical and quantum computer attacks.

Utilizing a fully optical and reconfigurable PUF as a quantum authentication mechanism

In this work, the novel usage of a physically unclonable function composed of a network of Mach-Zehnder interferometers for authentication tasks is described. The physically unclonable function hardware is completely reconfigurable, allowing for a large number of seemingly independent devices to be utilized, thus imitating a large array of single-response physically unclonable functions. It is proposed that any reconfigurable array of Mach-Zehnder interferometers can be used as an authentication mechanism, not only for physical objects, but for information transmitted both classically and quantumly. The proposed use-case for a fully-optical physically unclonable function, designed with reconfigurable hardware, is to authenticate messages between a trusted and possibly untrusted party; verifying that the messages received are generated by the holder of the authentic device.

SOK: An Evaluation of Quantum Authentication Through Systematic Literature Review

Quantum computers are considered a blessing to the dynamic technological world that promises to solve complex problems much faster than their known classical counterparts. Such computational power imposes critical threats on modern cryptography where it has been proven that asymmetric key cryptosystem will be rendered useless in a quantum world. However, we can utilize such a powerful mechanism for improving computer security by implementing such technology to solve complex data security problems such as authentication, secrets management, and others. Mainly, Quantum Authentication (QA) is an emerging concept in computer security that creates robust authentication for organizations, systems, and individuals. To delve deeper into the concept, for this research, we have further investigated QA through a detailed systematic literature review done on a corpus of N = 859 papers. We briefly discuss the major protocols used by various papers to achieve QA, and also note the distribution of papers using those protocols. We analyzed the technological limitations mentioned by previous researchers and highlighted the lack of human-centered solutions for such modern inventions. We emphasize the importance of research in the user aspect of QA to make the users aware of its potential advantages and disadvantages as we move to the quantum age.

Quantum identity authentication protocol based on three‐photon quantum error avoidance code in edge computing

SummaryInformation security protection is always one of very significant and fundamental issues in edge computing, generally including cryptography, authentication, intrusion detection, privacy protection, and other technologies, and so forth. Quantum authentication is one of the latest extensions of authentication technology in quantum field. So far, most of the quantum identity authentication protocols proposed are based on noise‐free environments. However, due to the existence of quantum noise in quantum channels is inevitable, the noise immunity is very important to quantum identity authentication. In this article, a novel quantum identity authentication protocol based on three‐photon error avoidance code is proposed. In this protocol, quantum information is encoded on the noiseless subsystem, so the protocol can effectively resist on the interference of noise in the quantum channel to information transmission. The comprehensive analysis of antinoise performance and the security analysis on various eavesdropping attacks shows that the new protocol proposed in this article has not only good antinoise performance but also good security.

A novel quantum identity authentication based on Bell states

In this paper, we present a novel quantum authentication protocol based on entanglement swapping of Bell states, in which it can ensure two users to simultaneously authenticate each other. With the help of a semi-honest third party, our protocol can realize mutual identity authentication by utilizing Bell states and applying Pauli operators. In addition, this protocol can prevent the third party from knowing the secret key shared in prior between the two users. Finally, the analysis results show that this protocol is secure and efficient.

Intercept-Resend Emulation Attacks against a Continuous-Variable Quantum Authentication Protocol with Physical Unclonable Keys

Optical physical unclonable keys are currently considered to be rather promising candidates for the development of entity authentication protocols, which offer security against both classical and quantum adversaries. In this work, we investigate the robustness of a continuous-variable protocol, which relies on the scattering of coherent states of light from the key, against three different types of intercept–resend emulation attacks. The performance of the protocol is analyzed for a broad range of physical parameters, and our results are compared to existing security bounds.

Security proof for quantum key recycling with noise

Quantum Key Recycling aims to re-use the keys employed in quantum encryption and quantum authentication schemes. QKR protocols can achieve better round complexity than Quantum Key Distribution. We consider a QKR protocol that works with qubits, as opposed to high-dimensional qudits. A security proof was given by Fehr and Salvail in the case where there is practically no noise. A high-rate scheme for the noisy case was proposed by \v{S}kori\'{c} and de Vries, based on eight-state encoding. However, a security proof was not given. In this paper we introduce a protocol modification and provide a security proof. The modified protocol has high rate not only for 8-state encoding, but also 6-state and BB84 encoding. Our proof is based on a bound on the trace distance between the real quantum state of the system and a state in which the keys are completely secure. It turns out that the rate is higher than suggested by previous results. Asymptotically the rate equals the rate of Quantum Key Distribution with one-way postprocessing.

A semi-quantum authentication protocol for message and identity

A semi-quantum authentication protocol based on a GHZ-like state and W state is proposed to determine the identities of two participants and to ensure the credibility of the important information. The proposed semi-quantum authentication protocol does not require all communicators to own quantum capability, which not only improves the possibility of implementation but also greatly reduces the hardware requirements. In addition, analyses indicate that the proposed semi-quantum authentication protocol under limited resources is more secure and effective than some typical quantum authentication protocols.

Quantum message authentication scheme based on remote state preparation

We propose a quantum message authentication scheme that provides integrity and origin authentication using a remote state preparation. Authentication is one of the security services that must be provided in secure communication. Quantum message authentication is the base scheme for realizing quantum authentication that is known to be a secure technique even in a forthcoming quantum computer environment. The proposed scheme creates a quantum message authentication code (QMAC) with only a single qubit measurement. It is therefore easy to implement and operate compared to existing technology that normally generates a QMAC with a Bell measurement or controlled unitary operation. For security analysis, we design a quantum random oracle model based on the random oracle model and demonstrate the quantum collision resistance with it. From the analysis, the probability of the quantum collision is 0.69N per qubit, where N is the size of the message sequence. Since the probability of quantum collision in the case of N ≥ 13 becomes extremely low of under 0.8%, we confirm that the proposed scheme guarantees the integrity and origin authentication of the message.

Fingerprint-Based Quantum Authentication Scheme Using Encoded Graph States

We demonstrate a novel fingerprint-based quantum authentication scheme with encoded graph states. This scheme is designed to solve the practical problem in knowledge-based quantum authentication systems and could make users get rid of remembering a large of number of passwords. What’s more, it could satisfy the requirement of secure remote communication by using fingerprint-encoded graph states, which would solve the security and privacy problems existing in the traditional fingerprint identification system. Security analysis shows that the proposed scheme could effectively defend various attacks including forgery attack, intercept-resend attack and man-in-the-middle attack. And, this scheme takes advantages of the merits in terms of both fingerprint recognition and quantum authentication, rendering it more secure, convenient and practical for users than its original counterpart, knowledge-based quantum authentication.

A Survey on Quantum Cryptography

Quantum cryptography (QC) as an important technology to protect the security of the future network communication, has gained extensive attention from both academia and industry in recent years. This paper provides a concise up-to-date review of QC, including Quantum key distribution (QKD), Quantum authentication, Quantum public-key cryptography (QPKC), and so on. Our aim is to pave a comprehensive and solid starting ground for interested readers. We firstly clarify the definition of QC. Secondly, we present the current understanding of QC from different levels, including the basic knowledge of quantum information processing, QC protocols and the attacks in QC. Finally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities in this hopeful field.

Impersonation attack on a quantum secure direct communication and authentication protocol with improvement

We analyze the security of a quantum secure direct communication and authentication protocol based on single photons. We first give an impersonation attack on the protocol. The cryptanalysis shows that there is a gap in the authentication procedure of the protocol so that an opponent can reveal the secret information by an undetectable attempt. We then propose an improvement for the protocol and show it closes the gap by applying a mutual authentication procedure. In the improved protocol single photons are transmitted once in a session, so it is easy to implement as the primary protocol. Furthermore, we use a novel technique for secret order rearrangement of photons by which not only quantum storage is eliminated also a secret key can be reused securely. So the new protocol is applicable in practical approaches like embedded system devices.