Mutual Authentication Mechanism using Pre-Shared Key and BB84 Quantum Key Distribution for Quantum Cryptography Communication

It is believed that the quantum cryptography based on quantum key distribution achieves unconditional security. However, the additional authentication mechanism applied to the quantum cryptography needs to be studied since it is difficult for the quantum cryptography alone to prevent manin-the-middle attacks. Thus, we propose two authentication mechanisms combined with modern cryptography that can solve the authentication problems of quantum cryptography using pre-shared key and quantum key distribution. The proposed mechanisms can be efficiently applied to current quantum cryptographic devices, and are more secure than the modern cryptographic authentication method.