Beyond NISQ Assumptions: One-time Memory in the Classically Accessible Random-Oracle Model

Abstract:Quantum information enables many cryptographic primitives that are impossible in the classical world. A line of works has developed cryptographic protocol under the assumption that quantum adversaries are restricted to noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computing power, enabling strong one-time functionalities. But the advent of early fault-tolerant quantum computers eras will allow deeper logical quantum circuits, calling into questions the applicability of these NISQ-based assumptions. In this work, we adapt the classically accessible random oracle model (CAROM) as in [BDF+11] and [AK22], in which adversaries are only allowed to classically query the random oracle. The restriction is well motivated for NISQ quantum adversaries and may remain plausible in the presence of early fault-tolerant quantum computers. Then, we show that an efficient simulation-secure one-time memory (OTM) is possible under CAROM. Our protocol uses only BB84 states and has quadratic communication: for a $\lambda$-bit message and integer-valued parameters $n=n(\lambda)$ and $\ell=\ell(\lambda)$, the construction uses $n\ell$ qubits and $(n+2)\lambda$ classical bits, and for any quantum adversary with at most $2^{\ell/2-1}-1$ classical queries to the random oracle, its simulation advantage is at most $(n+3)\left(\frac{3}{4}\right)^n.$ Hence exponentially small simulation advantage in $n$.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Cryptography and Security (cs.CR)

arXiv:2609.32603 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.32603v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.32603 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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