Quantum Stream Ciphers: Impossibility of Unconditionally Strong Algorithms

Stream ciphers form one of two large classes of ciphers with private keys in classical cryptography. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a quantum stream cipher. Special types of quantum stream ciphers were proposed earlier by numerous researchers. We prove a general result on the nonexistence of an unconditionally strong quantum stream cipher if the length of a message is much longer than the length of a key. We analyze individual and collective attacks against a quantum stream cipher. A relationship between the problem of guessing the key by the opponent and the problem of distinguishing of random quantum states is established.