Cryptanalysis of a practical quantum key distribution with polarization-entangled photons

  • Authors:

  • Thomas Beth;Jörn Müller-Quade;Rainer Steinwandt

  • Affiliations:

  • IAKS/E.I.S.S., Fakultät für Informatik, Universität Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany;IAKS/E.I.S.S., Fakultät für Informatik, Universität Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany;IAKS/E.I.S.S., Fakultät für Informatik, Universität Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Quantum Information & Computation
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Recently, a quantum key exchange protocol has been described [1], which served as basis for securing an actual bank transaction by means of quantum cryptography [2]. The authentication scheme used to this aim has been proposed by Peev et al.[3]. Here we show, that this authentication is insecure in the sense that an attacker can provoke a situation where initiator and responder of a key exchange end up with different keys. Moreover, it may happen that an attacker can decrypt a part of the plaintext protected with the derived encryption key.