Known-plaintext attack-based analysis of double random phase encoding using multiple known plaintext-ciphertext pairs

Appl Opt. 2022 Oct 20;61(30):9010-9019. doi: 10.1364/AO.469244.

Abstract

Double random phase encoding (DRPE) is vulnerable to known-plaintext attacks (KPAs) based on phase retrieval algorithms. We previously analyzed DRPE resistance to KPA cryptanalysis with multiple known plaintext-ciphertext image pairs and obtained secret keys at a higher probability rate than when performing KPA cryptanalysis using one known image pair. However, the robustness of KPA in the presence of noise or occlusion in DRPE is unclear. We analyzed KPA properties in relation to DRPE when white Gaussian noise was gradually added to the Fourier amplitude or phase of a known ciphertext complex amplitude image. Additionally, we analyzed KPA properties when the Fourier phase of the known ciphertext image was gradually occluded by zero-valued pixels. The results showed that KPAs performed using multiple known plaintext-ciphertext image pairs were largely affected by noise added to the Fourier phase and thus are not always a strong tool for DRPE cryptanalysis.