Attacks on fixed-apparatus quantum-key-distribution schemes

2013/12/03 by Michel Boyer, Ran Gelles, Tal Mor
Computer Science · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Computer network #Computer science #Computer security #Electrical engineering #Engineering #Implementation #Key (lock) #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum cryptography #Quantum information #Quantum key distribution #Quantum mechanics #Qubit #Telecommunications #Theoretical computer science #Topology (electrical circuits) #Transmission (telecommunications) #cs.CR #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.90.012329

published as Physical Review A 90, 012329 (2014) · 10 pages, 3 figure, 8 tables. A preliminary version of this manuscript appeared in TPNC '12: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Theory and Practice of Natural Computing, LNCS, Vol. 7505 (2012)

arxiv created 2013/12/03 · openalex publication_date 2014/07/21 · arxiv updated 2014/07/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We consider quantum-key-distribution implementations in which the receiver's apparatus is fixed and does not depend on his choice of basis at each qubit transmission. We show that, although theoretical quantum key distribution is proven secure, such implementations are totally insecure against a strong eavesdropper that has one-time (single) access to the receiver's equipment. The attack we present here, the ``fixed-apparatus attack,'' causes a potential risk to the usefulness of several recent implementations.

Citations

• Planar lightwave circuits for quantum cryptographic systems
• Beating the Photon-Number-Splitting Attack in Practical Quantum Cryptography
• Limitations on Practical Quantum Cryptography
• Unconditional Security of Quantum Key Distribution over Arbitrarily Long Distances
• Quantum cryptography using any two nonorthogonal states
• Practical Free-Space Quantum Key Distribution over 1 km
• Device-Independent Security of Quantum Cryptography against Collective Attacks
• Quantum cryptographic network based on quantum memories
• Decoy State Quantum Key Distribution
• Quantum Key Distribution with High Loss: Toward Global Secure Communication
• Experimental open-air quantum key distribution with a single-photon source
• Efficient quantum key distribution secure against no-signalling eavesdroppers
• Quantum Key Distribution with Classical Bob