Provably Secure Three-Party Authenticated Quantum Key Distribution Protocols


Abstract:
This work presents quantum key distribution protocols (QKDPs) to safeguard security in large networks, ushering in new directions in classical cryptography and quantum cryptography. Two three-party QKDPs, one with implicit user authentication and the other with explicit mutual authentication, are proposed to demonstrate the merits of the new combination, which include the following: 1) security against such attacks as man-in-the-middle, eavesdropping and replay, 2) efficiency is improved as the proposed protocols contain the fewest number of communication rounds among existing QKDPs, and 3) two parties can share and use a long-term secret (repeatedly). To prove the security of the proposed schemes, this work also presents a new primitive called the Unbiased-Chosen Basis (UCB) assumption.