Pereira, Jason and Pirandola, Stefano orcid.org/0000-0001-6165-5615 (2018) Hacking Alice's box in continuous-variable quantum key distribution. Physical Review A. 062319. ISSN 1094-1622
Abstract
Security analyses of quantum cryptographic protocols typically rely on certain conditions; one such condition is that the sender (Alice) and receiver (Bob) have isolated devices inaccessible to third parties. If an eavesdropper (Eve) has a side-channel into one of the devices, then the key rate may be sensibly reduced. In this paper, we consider an attack on a coherent-state protocol, where Eve not only taps the main communication channel but also hacks Alice's device. This is done by introducing a Trojan horse mode with low mean number of photons $\bar{n}$ which is then modulated in a similar way to the signal state. First we show that this strategy can be reduced to an attack without side channels but with higher loss and noise in the main channel. Then we show how the key rate rapidly deteriorates for increasing photons $\bar{n}$, being halved at long distances each time $\bar{n}+1$ doubles. Our work suggests that Alice's device should also be equipped with sensing systems that are able to detect and estimate the total number of incoming and outgoing photons.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©2018 American Physical Society. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded with permission of the publisher/copyright holder. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details |
Keywords: | quant-ph,cond-mat.other,physics.ins-det,physics.optics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Computer Science (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 26 Nov 2018 10:30 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2025 17:36 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.98.062319 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1103/PhysRevA.98.062319 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:139154 |