Quantum Permutation Pad

The Quantum Permutation Pad (QPP) is a cryptographic protocol designed to leverage the principles of quantum mechanics for secure communication. While the exact details of the QPP can vary based on the specific implementation and the theoretical model, the general concept involves using quantum properties such as superposition and entanglement to enhance the security of data transmission. Here’s an overview of the QPP and its relationship to quantum mechanics and cryptography:

Key Concepts of Quantum Permutation Pad

1. Quantum Mechanics Principles: QPP relies on fundamental quantum mechanics principles, particularly superposition (the ability of quantum bits to be in multiple states simultaneously) and entanglement (the correlation between quantum bits regardless of distance).

2. Quantum Bits (Qubits): Instead of classical bits (which are either 0 or 1), QPP uses qubits, which can be in a state of 0, 1, or any quantum superposition of these states.

3. Permutation Operations: Permutations in the context of QPP refer to rearranging the ways to transform/interpret the plaintext comparing to rearranging the keys round and round in classical cryptography. These total permutations can be thought of as $P_n$. For a 8-bit byte, the overall permutations is $P_{256} =$ 256! =857817775342842654119082271681232625157781520279485619859655650377269452553147589377440291360451408450375885342336584306157196834693696475322289288497426025679637332563368786442675207626794560187968867971521143307702077526646451464709187326100832876325702818980773671781454170250523018608495319068138257481070252817559459476987034665712738139286205234756808218860701203611083152093501947437109101726968262861606263662435022840944191408424615936000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

4. Classical key space for 8-bit is 256 possible key (inters), then move qpp, the quantum key space become 256! possible permutation operators or gates!

5. QPP can be implemented both classically with matrices and quantum mechanically with quantum gates .

Applications and Benefits

• High Security: QPP offers higher security levels compared to classical cryptographic methods, leveraging the unique properties of quantum mechanics.
• Future-Proof: As quantum computers become more powerful, classical cryptographic schemes (like RSA and ECC) are at risk. QPP provides a quantum-resistant alternative.
• Secure Communication: Useful for secure communications in quantum networks and for safeguarding highly sensitive data.

Example Usage

Internal PRNG(NOT RECOMMENDED)

func main() {
    seed := make([]byte, 32)
    io.ReadFull(rand.Reader, seed)

    qpp := NewQPP(seed, 977) // a prime number of pads

    msg := make([]byte, 65536)
    io.ReadFull(rand.Reader, msg)

    qpp.Encrypt(msg)
    qpp.Decrypt(msg)
}

External PRNG, with shared pads. (RECOMMENDED)

func main() {
    seed := make([]byte, 32)
    io.ReadFull(rand.Reader, seed)

    qpp := NewQPP(seed, 977)

    msg := make([]byte, 65536)
    io.ReadFull(rand.Reader, msg)

    rand_enc := qpp.CreatePRNG(seed)
    rand_dec := qpp.CreatePRNG(seed)

    qpp.EncryptWithPRNG(msg, rand_enc)
    qpp.DecryptWithPRNG(msg, rand_dec)
}

The NewQPP generates permutations like(in cycle notation):

(0 4 60 108 242 196)(1 168 138 16 197 29 57 21 22 169 37 74 205 33 56 5 10 124 12 40 8 70 18 6 185 137 224)(2 64 216 178 88)(3 14 98 142 128 30 102 44 158 34 72 38 50 68 28 154 46 156 254 41 218 204 161 194 65)(7 157 101 181 141 121 77 228 105 206 193 155 240 47 54 78 110 90 174 52 207 233 248 167 245 199 79 144 162 149 97
140 111 126 170 139 175 119 189 171 215 55 89 81 23 134 106 251 83 15 173 250 147 217 115 229 99 107 223 39 244 246
 225 252 226 203 235 236 253 43 188 209 145 184 91 31 49 84 210 117 59 133 129 75 150 127 200 130 132 247 159 241
255 71 120 63 249 201 212 131 95 222 238 125 237 109 186 213 151 176 143 202 179 232 103 148 191 239)(9 20 113 73 69 160 114 122 164 17 208 58 116 36 26 96 24)(11 80 32 152 146 82 53 62 66 76 86 51 112 221 27 163 180 214 123 219 234)
(13 42 166 25 165)(19 172 177 230 198 45 61 104 136 100 182 85 153 35 192 48 220 94 190 118 195)(67)(87 92 93 227 211)(135)(183 243)(187)(231)

Security design in this implementatoin

The overall security is equivalent to 1683-bit symmetric encryption.

The number of permutation matrices in an 8-qubit system is determined based on the provided seed and is selected randomly.

The permutation pad could be written in Cycle notation as: $\sigma =(1\ 2\ 255)(3\ 36)(4\ 82\ 125)(....)$, which the elements are not reversible by XORing twice like in other stream ciphers.

Locality vs. Randomness

Random permutation disrupts locality, which is crucial for performance. To achieve higher encryption speed, we need to maintain some level of locality. In this design, instead of switching pads for every byte, we switch to a new random pad every 8 bytes.

The diagram clearly demonstrates that switching pads for every byte results in low performance, whereas switching pads every 8 bytes yields adequate performance.

Try directly from https://github.com/xtaci/kcptun/releases with the -QPP option enabled.

Performance

In modern CPUs, the latest QPP optimization can easily achieve speeds exceeding 1GB/s.

Security consideration in setting PADs

The number of pads should ideally be coprime with 8（與8互素), as the results indicate a hidden structure in the PRNG related to the number 8.

We demonstrate encrypting the Bible with 64 pads and 15 pads below with real data(The Bible encrypted).

For Pads(64), then $GCD(64,8) == 8, \chi^2 =3818 $

For Pads(15), then $GCD(15,8) == 1,\chi^2 =230$, COPRIME!!!

Click here to learn more about the chi-square results for pad count selection: https://github.com/xtaci/qpp/blob/main/misc/chi-square.csv

As you can tell the difference from the Chi square distribution, randomness has been enhanced by setting to numbers that are coprimes to 8.

Conclusion

The Quantum Permutation Pad is a promising approach in the field of quantum cryptography, utilizing quantum mechanical properties to achieve secure communication. By applying quantum permutations to encrypt and decrypt data, QPP ensures high security and leverages the unique capabilities of quantum technology. As research and technology in quantum computing and quantum communication advance, protocols like QPP will play a crucial role in the next generation of secure communication systems.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request for any improvements, bug fixes, or additional features.

License

This project is licensed under the GPLv3 License. See the LICENSE file for details.

References

For more detailed information, please refer to the research paper.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the authors of the research paper for their groundbreaking work on Quantum Permutation Pad.