English
Related papers

Related papers: Robust countermeasure against detector control att…

200 papers

Practical implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD) have been shown to be subject to various detector side-channel attacks that compromise the promised unconditional security. Most notable is a general class of attacks adopting the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-10-05 Salem F. Hegazy , Salah S. A. Obayya , Bahaa E. A. Saleh

The article is focused on research of an attack on the quantum key distribution system and proposes a countermeasure method. Particularly noteworthy is that this is not a classic attack on a quantum protocol. We describe an attack on the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-04-29 Anton Pljonkin , Dmitry Petrov , Lilia Sabantina , Kamila Dakhkilgova

Quantum key distribution (QKD) provides means for unconditional secure key transmission between two distant parties. However, in practical implementations, it suffers from quantum hacking due to device imperfections. Here we propose a…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-07-16 Shi-Hai Sun , Mu-Sheng Jiang , Xiang-Chun Ma , Chun-Yan Li , Lin-Mei Liang

Security analyses in quantum key distribution (QKD) and other adversarial quantum tasks often assume perfect device models. However, real-world implementations often deviate from these models. Thus, it is important to develop security…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-03-25 Shlok Nahar , Devashish Tupkary , Norbert Lütkenhaus

Quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum message encryption protocols promise a secure way to distribute information while detecting eavesdropping. However, current protocols may suffer from significantly reduced eavesdropping protection…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-05-27 Nicholas J. C. Papadopoulos , Kirby Linvill

The use of linearly independent signal states in realistic implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD) enables an eavesdropper to perform unambiguous state discrimination. We explore quantitatively the limits for secure QKD imposed by…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2009-10-31 Miloslav Dusek , Mika Jahma , Norbert Lütkenhaus

Implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD) need vulnerability assessment against loopholes in their optical scheme. Most of the optical attacks involve injecting or receiving extraneous light via the communication channel. An…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-01 Hao Tan , Mikhail Petrov , Weiyang Zhang , Liying Han , Sheng-Kai Liao , Vadim Makarov , Feihu Xu , Jian-Wei Pan

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to exchange a secret key between two parties. Unlike classical cryptographic systems, the security of QKD is not reliant on computational assumptions but is…

The ability of an eavesdropper to compromise the security of a quantum communication system by changing the angle of the incoming light is well-known. Randomizing the role of the detectors has been proposed to be an efficient countermeasure…

Signal Processing · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2021-01-12 M A Ruhul Fatin , Shihan Sajeed

Due to its ability to tolerate high channel loss, decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) has been one of the main focuses within the QKD community. Notably, several experimental groups have demonstrated that it is secure and feasible…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2014-02-12 Charles Ci Wen Lim , Marcos Curty , Nino Walenta , Feihu Xu , Hugo Zbinden

In this article we present a new prepare and measure quantum key distribution protocol that decouples the necessary quantum channel error estimation from its dependency on sifting, or otherwise post-selecting, the detection outcomes. Rather…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-02-27 James E. Troupe , Jacob M. Farinholt

In principle, quantum key distribution (QKD) offers information-theoretic security based on the laws of physics. In practice, however, the imperfections of realistic devices might introduce deviations from the idealized models used in…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-06-01 Feihu Xu , Xiongfeng Ma , Qiang Zhang , Hoi-Kwong Lo , Jian-Wei Pan

Unconditional security of quantum key distribution protocol can be guaranteed by the basic property of quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, the practical quantum key distribution system always have some imperfections, and the practical system…

Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows two distant parties to share secret keys with the proven security even in the presence of an eavesdropper with unbounded computational power. Recently, GHz-clock decoy QKD systems have been realized by…

Quantum key distribution (QKD) has often been hailed as a reliable technology for secure communication in cyber-physical microgrids. Even though unauthorized key measurements are not possible in QKD, attempts to read them can disturb…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-05-21 Suman Rath , Neel Kanth Kundu , Subham Sahoo

Current implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD) typically rely on prepare-and-measure (P&M) schemes. Unfortunately, these implementations are not completely secure, unless security proofs fully incorporate all imperfections of…

General Trojan horse attacks on quantum key distribution systems are analyzed. We illustrate the power of such attacks with today's technology and conclude that all system must implement active counter-measures. In particular all systems…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2013-05-29 N. Gisin , S. Fasel , B. Kraus , H. Zbinden , G. Ribordy

Quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols with threshold detectors are driving high-performance QKD demonstrations. The corresponding security proofs usually assume that all physical detectors have the same detection efficiency. However, the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-02-02 Yanbao Zhang , Patrick J. Coles , Adam Winick , Jie Lin , Norbert Lutkenhaus

Optical key distribution (OKD) protects the physical layer of communication links by taking advantage of the inherent noise present in the photodetection process. It allows for efficient generation of a shared random key between two distant…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-03-24 Karol Łukanowski , Michał Wójcik , Stefano Olivares , Konrad Banaszek , Marcin Jarzyna

Side-channel attacks currently constitute the main challenge for quantum key distribution (QKD) to bridge theory with practice. So far two main approaches have been introduced to address this problem, (full) device-independent QKD and…