Counterfactual Trojan horse attack

Zheng-Hong Li, Luojia Wang, Jingping Xu, Yaping Yang, M. Al-Amri, and M. Suhail Zubairy
Phys. Rev. A 101, 022336 – Published 27 February 2020

Abstract

Trojan horse attack is a common eavesdropping strategy which can attack various quantum secure communication systems. Its basic idea is to send auxiliary photons into a legitimate communicator's apparatuses and steal information by analyzing the reflected photons. In this paper, we consider a different kind of Trojan horse attack, the so-called counterfactual Trojan horse attack, which has not been studied in detail so far. In such an attack, the eavesdropper may steal the secret information by “ghost” photons, which can spontaneously avoid being detected, even if the detector is an ideal one. We present the details and requirements of such an attack. We also illustrate our results by considering two protocols, the ping-pong protocol and the counterfactual quantum cryptography. Furthermore, we discuss the nature of the counterfactual Trojan horse attack and the strategy to successfully deal with it. Our results indicate that additional resources may be required for the protection against such an attack.

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  • Received 17 October 2019
  • Accepted 5 February 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.101.022336

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Quantum Information, Science & Technology

Authors & Affiliations

Zheng-Hong Li1,2,3,*, Luojia Wang4,5, Jingping Xu5, Yaping Yang5,†, M. Al-Amri3,6,7,8, and M. Suhail Zubairy3

  • 1Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
  • 2Shanghai Key Laboratory of High Temperature Superconductors, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
  • 3Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering (IQSE) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4242, USA
  • 4State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 5MOE Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-structured Materials, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
  • 6CQOQI, KACST, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia
  • 7National Center for Laser and Optoelectronics, KACST, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia
  • 8Department of Physics, KKU, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia

  • *refirefox@shu.edu.cn
  • yang_yaping@tongji.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 101, Iss. 2 — February 2020

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