Deep Anomaly Detection for Active Attacks on the Receiver in Quantum Key Distribution

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liu, Junxuan, Huang, Bingcheng, Su, Jialei, Peng, Qingquan, Huang, Anqi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Liu, Junxuan
Huang, Bingcheng
Su, Jialei
Peng, Qingquan
Huang, Anqi
author_facet Liu, Junxuan
Huang, Bingcheng
Su, Jialei
Peng, Qingquan
Huang, Anqi
contents Traditional countermeasures against attacks targeting the receiver in quantum key distribution (QKD) systems often suffer from poor compatibility with deployed infrastructure, the risk of introducing new vulnerabilities, and limited applicability to specific types of active attacks. In this work, we propose an anomaly detection (AD) model based on one-class machine learning to address active attacks targeting the receiver. By constructing a dataset from the QKD system's operational states, the AD model learns the characteristics of normal behavior under secure conditions. When an active attack occurs, the system's state deviates from the learned normal patterns and is identified as anomalous by the model. Experimental results show that the AD model achieves an area under the curve (AUC) exceeding 99%, effectively safeguarding the receiver of the QKD system. Compared to traditional approaches, our model can be deployed with minimal cost in existing QKD networks without requiring additional optical or electrical components, thus avoiding the introduction of new side channels. Furthermore, unlike multi-class machine learning algorithms, our approach does not rely on prior knowledge of specific attack types and is potentially able to detect unknown active attacks. These advantages-generality, ease of deployment, low cost, and high accuracy-make our model a practical and effective tool for protecting the receiver of QKD systems against active attacks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_12749
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Deep Anomaly Detection for Active Attacks on the Receiver in Quantum Key Distribution
Liu, Junxuan
Huang, Bingcheng
Su, Jialei
Peng, Qingquan
Huang, Anqi
Quantum Physics
Traditional countermeasures against attacks targeting the receiver in quantum key distribution (QKD) systems often suffer from poor compatibility with deployed infrastructure, the risk of introducing new vulnerabilities, and limited applicability to specific types of active attacks. In this work, we propose an anomaly detection (AD) model based on one-class machine learning to address active attacks targeting the receiver. By constructing a dataset from the QKD system's operational states, the AD model learns the characteristics of normal behavior under secure conditions. When an active attack occurs, the system's state deviates from the learned normal patterns and is identified as anomalous by the model. Experimental results show that the AD model achieves an area under the curve (AUC) exceeding 99%, effectively safeguarding the receiver of the QKD system. Compared to traditional approaches, our model can be deployed with minimal cost in existing QKD networks without requiring additional optical or electrical components, thus avoiding the introduction of new side channels. Furthermore, unlike multi-class machine learning algorithms, our approach does not rely on prior knowledge of specific attack types and is potentially able to detect unknown active attacks. These advantages-generality, ease of deployment, low cost, and high accuracy-make our model a practical and effective tool for protecting the receiver of QKD systems against active attacks.
title Deep Anomaly Detection for Active Attacks on the Receiver in Quantum Key Distribution
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.12749