Unambiguous State Discrimination Attack on the B92 Protocol of Quantum Key Distribution with Single Photons

Abstract

We consider an unambiguous state discrimination attack on the B92 protocol of quantum key distribution, realized on the basis of polarization encoding of photons produced by a single-photon source. We calculate the secure key rate and the maximal tolerable loss for various overlaps between two signal states employed in this protocol. We make also a comparison with a physically impossible attack of perfect quantum cloning, and show that the unambiguous state discrimination is much more dangerous for the B92 protocol, than this attack, demonstrating thus, that the security of quantum key distribution is not always based on the no-cloning theorem.