Hide and seek with quantum resources: New and modified protocols for quantum steganography
This work addresses security issues in quantum communication for applications requiring covert message transmission, representing an incremental improvement over prior quantum steganography methods.
The authors tackled the vulnerability of quantum steganography protocols to detection attacks by analyzing weaknesses in an existing method and proposing a new protocol using discrete modulation continuous variable QKD to eliminate this threat, resulting in a secure system that resists steganalysis.
Steganography is the science of hiding and communicating a secret message by embedding it in an innocent looking text such that the eavesdropper is unaware of its existence. Previously, attempts were made to establish steganography using quantum key distribution (QKD). Recently, it has been shown that such protocols are vulnerable to a certain steganalysis attack that can detect the presence of the hidden message and suppress the entire communication. In this work, we elaborate on the vulnerabilities of the original protocol which make it insecure against this detection attack. Further, we propose a novel steganography protocol using discrete modulation continuous variable QKD that eliminates the threat of this detection-based attack. Deriving from the properties of our protocol, we also propose modifications in the original protocol to dispose of its vulnerabilities and make it insusceptible to steganalysis.