Protecting Fiber-Optic Quantum Key Distribution Sources against Light-Injection Attacks

作     者：Anastasiya Ponosova Daria Ruzhitskaya Poompong Chaiwongkhot Vladimir Egorov Vadim Makarov Anqi Huang 

作者机构：Russian Quantum Center Skolkovo Moscow 121205 Russia NTI Center for Quantum Communications National University of Science and Technology MISiS Moscow 119049 Russia Institute for Quantum Computing University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario N2L 3G1 Canada Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario N2L 3G1 Canada Department of Physics Faculty of Science Mahidol University Bangkok 10400 Thailand Quantum technology foundation (Thailand) Bangkok 10110 Thailand Leading research center for Quantum internet ITMO University Birzhevaya line 14 St. Petersburg 199034 Russia SMARTS-Quanttelecom LLC 6 liniya V.O. 59 St. Petersburg 199178 Russia Shanghai Branch National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information University of Science and Technology of China Shanghai 201315 People’s Republic of China Institute for Quantum Information & State Key Laboratory of High Performance Computing College of Computer Science and Technology National University of Defense Technology Changsha 410073 China 

出 版 物：《PRX Quantum》 (PRX. Quantum.)

年 卷 期：2022年第3卷第4期

页      面：040307-040307页

核心收录：

基　　金：DPST MRIS of Ontario NSRF, (B05F640051) State Key Laboratory of High Performance Computing, (202001-02) Canada Foundation for Innovation, CFI National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC, (61901483, 62061136011) National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Minobrnauka, (075-11-2021-078, 5-in-100) Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Minobrnauka Russian Science Foundation, RSF, (21-42-00040) Russian Science Foundation, RSF National Key Research and Development Program of China, NKRDPC, (2019QY0702) National Key Research and Development Program of China, NKRDPC 

主　　题：Quantum communication Quantum cryptography 

摘      要：A well-protected and characterized source in a quantum key distribution system is needed for its security. Unfortunately, the source is vulnerable to light-injection attacks, such as Trojan-horse, laser-seeding, and laser-damage attacks, in which an eavesdropper actively injects bright light to hack the source unit. The hacking laser could be a high-power one that can modify properties of components via the laser-damage attack and also further help the Trojan-horse and other light-injection attacks. Here we propose a countermeasure against the light-injection attacks, consisting of an additional sacrificial component placed at the exit of the source. This component should either withstand high-power incoming light while attenuating it to a safe level that cannot modify the rest of the source, or get destroyed into a permanent high-attenuation state that breaks up the line. We demonstrate experimentally that off-the-shelf fiber-optic isolators and circulators have these desired properties, at least under attack by a continuous-wave high-power laser.