The Universal Composable Security of Quantum Key Distribution
Abstract
The existing unconditional security definitions of quantum key distribution (QKD) do not apply to joint attacks over QKD and the subsequent use of the resulting key. In this paper, we close this potential security gap by using a universal composability theorem for the quantum setting. We first derive a composable security definition for QKD. We then prove that the usual security definition of QKD still implies the composable security definition. Thus, a key produced in any QKD protocol that is unconditionally secure in the usual definition can indeed be safely used, a property of QKD that is hitherto unproven. We propose two other useful sufficient conditions for composability. As a simple application of our result, we show that keys generated by repeated runs of QKD degrade slowly.
Additional Information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. We thank Charles Bennett, Daniel Gottesman, Aram Harrow, and John Smolin for interesting discussions on the security concerns of using a key obtained from QKD. We also thank Dominique Unruh and Jorn Muller-Quade for interesting discussions on their alternative framework of composability. Part of this work was completed while MH and JO were visiting the MSRI program on quantum information, Berkeley, 2002. MB acknowledges the support of the Israel Science Foundation and a research grant from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. lVIH is supported by EU grants RESQ (IST-2001-37559) and QUPRODIS (IST-2001-38877). DL acknowledges the support from the Tolman Foundation and the Croucher Foundation. DL and DM acknowledge support from the US NSF under grant no. EIA-0086038. JO is supported by an ED grant PROSECCO (IST-2001-39227) and a grant from the Cambridge-MIT Institute.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 22339
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-540-30576-7_21
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110217-075107992
- RESQ (IST-2001-37559)
- European Union (EU)
- QUPRODIS (IST-2001-38877)
- European Union (EU)
- Tolman Foundation
- Croucher Foundation
- EIA-0086038
- NSF
- PROSECCO (IST-2001-39227)
- European Union (EU)
- Cambridge-MIT Institute
- Israel Science Foundation
- Israeli Ministry of Defense
- Created
-
2011-02-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- Lecture Notes in Computer Science
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 3378