HAR 2009: Revealing How We Eavesdropped on 100% of a Quantum Cryptographic Key 🔓

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Speakers: Ilja Gerhardt, Vadim Makarov

Quantum cryptography, as being based on the laws of physics, was claimed to be much more secure than all classical cryptography schemes. (Un)fortunately physical hardware is not beyond of an evil control: We present a successful attack of an existing quantum key distribution system exploiting a photon detector vulnerability which is probably present in all existing devices. Without Alice and Bob losing their faith in their secure communication, we recorded 100% of the supposedly secret key.

The actual eavesdropping hardware we have built will be shown during the conference.

A brief intro into quantum cryptography will be given at the beginning of the talk. Then, Vadim Makarov will explain the above attack. At the end of the talk, Ilja Gerhardt will (hopefully) present another application of the discovered detector vulnerability, which shall remain a surprise :)


For more information go to: https://har2009.org/program/events/168.en.html