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Effect of source tampering in the security of quantum cryptography
The security of source has become an increasingly important issue in quantum
cryptography. Based on the framework of measurement-device-independent
quantum-key-distribution (MDI-QKD), the source becomes the only region
exploitable by a potential eavesdropper (Eve). Phase randomization is a
cornerstone assumption in most discrete-variable (DV-) quantum communication
protocols (e.g., QKD, quantum coin tossing, weak coherent state blind quantum
computing, and so on), and the violation of such an assumption is thus fatal to
the security of those protocols. In this paper, we show a simple quantum
hacking strategy, with commercial and homemade pulsed lasers, by Eve that
allows her to actively tamper with the source and violate such an assumption,
without leaving a trace afterwards. Furthermore, our attack may also be valid
for continuous-variable (CV-) QKD, which is another main class of QKD protocol,
since, excepting the phase random assumption, other parameters (e.g.,
intensity) could also be changed, which directly determine the security of
CV-QKD.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
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