Remote quantum-safe authentication of entities with physical unclonable functions
This addresses the need for secure remote authentication in quantum computing contexts, though it is incremental as it builds on standard techniques.
The paper tackles the problem of remote quantum-safe entity authentication over large distances, which was previously vulnerable to emulation attacks or limited to short ranges, and proposes a protocol that operates over large distances with security against classical and quantum adversaries, using standard techniques compatible with existing photonic networks.
Physical unclonable functions have been shown a useful resource of randomness for implementing various cryptographic tasks including entity authentication. All of the related entity authentication protocols that have been discussed in the literature so far, either they are vulnerable to an emulation attack, or they are limited to short distances. Hence, quantum-safe remote entity authentication over large distances remains an open question. In the first part of this work we discuss the requirements that an entity authentication protocol has to offer in order to be useful for remote entity authentication in practice. Subsequently, we propose a protocol, which can operate over large distances, and offers security against both classical and quantum adversaries. The proposed protocol relies on standard techniques, it is fully compatible with the infrastructure of existing and future photonic networks, and it can operate in parallel with other quantum protocols, including QKD protocols.