A new attack resistant encryption method based on hybrid chaotic-quantum key distribution (CQKD)

In this paper, a new hybrid chaotic-quantum encryption model is investigated aiming to solve the interception trouble of information transmission through insecure environment. In this model, the image encryption method is studied using block diagonal chaotic (BDC) matrix and quantum based private key. The block diagonal chaotic model is designed with structured matrix based on two different nonlinear chaotic sequences and private key bits combined with quantum walks (QWs) path. At sender, the key bits convert to QWs states to increase tamper resistant of quantum key distribution in noisy communication channel. At the receiver side, the received data is retrieved merely by both initial key bits and states as similar as the sender initial key bits and states. If the eavesdropper attempts to measure quantum based private key, the key bits change to different states compared to real sender states and drops the bits eavesdropped in quantum channel. We call the hybrid chaotic image encryption method with private key based on quantum states as chaotic quantum key distribution (CQKD) method. The key space is evaluated using CQKD model rather than chaotic based encryption method without quantum distributed states over impure channels. Considering the sensitivity of block diagonal chaotic-based encryption BDC method with accuracy of 10⁽⁻³²⁾, the key space is increased from \({10}^{111}\) to \({10}^{142}\times {10}^{a}\times f(\Delta\Phi ) \times {(\frac{1}{\Delta {p}_{e}})}^{{\rm N}_{e}}\) with phase-shifted QWs. It guarantees no information access by attackers considering high security against brute-force attacks and outperforms rather than the conventional chaotic encryption schemes.