Sequential Attack with Intensity Modulation on the Differential-Phase-Shift Quantum Key Distribution Protocol

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the security of the differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution (DPSQKD) protocol by introducing an improved version of the so-called sequential attack, which was originally discussed by Waks et al. Our attack differs from the original form of the sequential attack in that the attacker Eve modulates not only the phases but also the amplitude in the superposition of the single-photon states which she sends to the receiver. Concentrating especially on the "discretized gaussian" intensity modulation, we show that our attack is more effective than the individual attack, which had been the best attack up to present. As a result of this, the recent experiment with communication distance of 100km reported by Diamanti et al. turns out to be insecure. Moreover it can be shown that in a practical experimental setup which is commonly used today, the communication distance achievable by the DPSQKD protocol is less than 95km.

6 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Security of differential phase shift quantum key distribution against individual attacks
• 100 km secure differential phase shift quantum key distribution with low jitter up-conversion detectors

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• Upper security bounds for coherent-one-way quantum key distribution
• Quantum soft filtering for the improved security analysis of the coherent one-way quantum-key-distribution protocol
• Zero-error attack against coherent-one-way quantum key distribution
• Effect of detector dead-times on the security evaluation of differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution against sequential attacks
• A security proof of the round-robin differential phase shift quantum key distribution protocol based on the signal disturbance
• Security proof of differential phase shift quantum key distribution in the noiseless case
• Hacking coherent-one-way quantum key distribution with present-day technology
• Information Geometric Security Analysis of Differential Phase Shift Quantum Key Distribution Protocol
• Security and entanglement in differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution
• Tight scaling of key rate for differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution