Qerberos: A Protocol for Secure Distribution of QRNG Keys

Abstract

A communication protocol for the distribution of cryptographic keys generated by a quantum random number generator (QRNG) has been developed by introducing a minor modification to Kerberos and using SRP as the authentication mechanism. The protocol, named Qerberos, allows two users to acquire the same symmetric key generated by a trusted third party with access to a QRNG, whose keys have higher entropy than a classical generator. An implementation that employs two different Q RN Gs has been tested for different parameters achieving good performance and short request times.