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Trojan-horse attacks on quantum key distribution with classical Bob

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Abstract

Recently, Boyer et al. (Phys Rev Lett 99:140501, 2007) introduced a conceptually novel semi-quantum key distribution scheme (BKM07). Tan et al. (Phys Rev Lett 102:098901, 2009) showed that classical Bob is unable to detect Eve’s eavesdropping by giving a special implementation of BKM07 protocol. In the reply, Boyer et al. (Phys Rev Lett 102:098902, 2009) gave a solution against the eavesdropping, i.e., Bob may place a filter that allows only photons with approximately specific frequency to pass just at the expected time \({\sim }t\). However, their improvement contradicts the descriptions about “classical.” If the assumption of “classical” is not considered, we give a delay-photon Trojan-horse attack on BKM07 protocol and its improvement and further present a possible improvement.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewer for his/her constructive suggestions. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61003290); Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 4122008, 4122012); The Importation and Development of High-Caliber Talents Project of Beijing Municipal Institutions (No. CIT&TCD201304039); National Cipher Development Fund during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period (No. MMJJ201401006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer Science and Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Yu-Guang Yang, Si-Jia Sun & Qian-Qian Zhao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Information Security Institute of Information Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Yu-Guang Yang

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  1. Yu-Guang Yang
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  2. Si-Jia Sun
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  3. Qian-Qian Zhao
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Correspondence to Yu-Guang Yang.

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Yang, YG., Sun, SJ. & Zhao, QQ. Trojan-horse attacks on quantum key distribution with classical Bob. Quantum Inf Process 14, 681–686 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-014-0872-1

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