Abstract
Stream ciphers form one of two large classes of ciphers with private keys in classical cryptography. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a quantum stream cipher. Special types of quantum stream ciphers were proposed earlier by numerous researchers. We prove a general result on the nonexistence of an unconditionally strong quantum stream cipher if the length of a message is much longer than the length of a key. We analyze individual and collective attacks against a quantum stream cipher. A relationship between the problem of guessing the key by the opponent and the problem of distinguishing of random quantum states is established.
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Translated from Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Seriya Sovremennaya Matematika i Ee Prilozheniya. Tematicheskie Obzory, Vol. 151, Quantum Probability, 2018.
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Tregubov, P.A., Trushechkin, A.S. Quantum Stream Ciphers: Impossibility of Unconditionally Strong Algorithms. J Math Sci 252, 90–103 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10958-020-05144-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10958-020-05144-x