A directional coupler attack against the Kish key distribution system

2014/02/12 by Lachlan J. Gunn, Gunn, Lachlan J., Andrew Allison +3 · 2 citations
Computer Science · #Advanced Statistical Modeling Techniques #Cryptography and Security (cs.CR) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #cs.CR

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1402.2709

openalex publication_date 2014/02/12 · arxiv created 2014/05/20 · arxiv updated 2014/05/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The Kish key distribution system has been proposed as a class ical alternative to quantum key distribution. The idealized Kish scheme elegantly promise s secure key distribution by exploiting thermal noise in a transmission line. However, we demonstrate that it is vulnerable to nonidealities in its components, such as the finite resistance of the transmission line connecting its endpoints. We introduce a novel attack against this nonideality using directional wave measurements, and experimentally demonstrate its efficacy. Our attack is based on causality: in a spatially distributed system, propagation is needed for thermodynamic equilibration, and that leaks information.

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• On the “Cracking” Scheme in the Paper “A Directional Coupler Attack Against the Kish Key Distribution System” by Gunn, Allison and Abbott

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