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Cryptanalysis of a Practical Quantum Key Distribution With Polarization-Entangled Photons

Thomas Beth·Joern Mueller-Quade·Rainer Steinwandt
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Abstract

Recently, a quantum key exchange protocol has been described, which served as basis for securing an actual bank transaction by means of quantum cryptography [quant-ph/0404115]. Here we show, that the authentication scheme applied 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.

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Thomas Beth, Joern Mueller-Quade, Rainer Steinwandt. 2004-07-16. Cryptanalysis of a Practical Quantum Key Distribution With Polarization-Entangled Photons. https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0407130

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