On the Robustness of (Photonic) Quantum Key Distribution with Classical Alice

Abstract

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) with classical Bob has recently been suggested and proven robust. Following this work, QKD with classical Alice was also suggested and proven robust. The above protocols are ideal in the sense that they make use of qubits. However, in the past, well-known QKD protocols that were proven robust and even proven unconditionally secure, when qubits are used, were found to be totally insecure when photons are used. This is due to sensitivity to photon losses (e.g., Bennett's two-state protocol) or sensitivity to losses combined with multi-photon states (e.g., the photon-number-splitting attack on the weak-pulse Bennett-Brassard protocol, BB84). Here we prove that QKD with classical Alice is still robust when photon losses and even multi-photon states are taken into account.