SQUASH: A SWAP-Based Quantum Attack to Sabotage Hybrid Quantum Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Kumar, Rahul, Wei, Wenqi, Mao, Ying, Farooq, Junaid, Wang, Ying, Chen, Juntao
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Kumar, Rahul
Wei, Wenqi
Mao, Ying
Farooq, Junaid
Wang, Ying
Chen, Juntao
author_facet Kumar, Rahul
Wei, Wenqi
Mao, Ying
Farooq, Junaid
Wang, Ying
Chen, Juntao
contents We propose a circuit-level attack, SQUASH, a SWAP-Based Quantum Attack to sabotage Hybrid Quantum Neural Networks (HQNNs) for classification tasks. SQUASH is executed by inserting SWAP gate(s) into the variational quantum circuit of the victim HQNN. Unlike conventional noise-based or adversarial input attacks, SQUASH directly manipulates the circuit structure, leading to qubit misalignment and disrupting quantum state evolution. This attack is highly stealthy, as it does not require access to training data or introduce detectable perturbations in input states. Our results demonstrate that SQUASH significantly degrades classification performance, with untargeted SWAP attacks reducing accuracy by up to 74.08\% and targeted SWAP attacks reducing target class accuracy by up to 79.78\%. These findings reveal a critical vulnerability in HQNN implementations, underscoring the need for more resilient architectures against circuit-level adversarial interventions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_24081
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SQUASH: A SWAP-Based Quantum Attack to Sabotage Hybrid Quantum Neural Networks
Kumar, Rahul
Wei, Wenqi
Mao, Ying
Farooq, Junaid
Wang, Ying
Chen, Juntao
Quantum Physics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
We propose a circuit-level attack, SQUASH, a SWAP-Based Quantum Attack to sabotage Hybrid Quantum Neural Networks (HQNNs) for classification tasks. SQUASH is executed by inserting SWAP gate(s) into the variational quantum circuit of the victim HQNN. Unlike conventional noise-based or adversarial input attacks, SQUASH directly manipulates the circuit structure, leading to qubit misalignment and disrupting quantum state evolution. This attack is highly stealthy, as it does not require access to training data or introduce detectable perturbations in input states. Our results demonstrate that SQUASH significantly degrades classification performance, with untargeted SWAP attacks reducing accuracy by up to 74.08\% and targeted SWAP attacks reducing target class accuracy by up to 79.78\%. These findings reveal a critical vulnerability in HQNN implementations, underscoring the need for more resilient architectures against circuit-level adversarial interventions.
title SQUASH: A SWAP-Based Quantum Attack to Sabotage Hybrid Quantum Neural Networks
topic Quantum Physics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.24081