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Design of Quantum Computer Antivirus

Sanjay R. Deshpande, Chuanqi Xu, Theodoros Trochatos, Hanrui Wang, Ferhat Erata, Song Han, Yongshan Ding, Jakub M. Szefer

Published May 1, 2023• 27 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The development of quantum computers has been advancing rapidly in recent years. In addition to researchers and companies building bigger and bigger machines, these computers are already being actively connected to the internet and offered as cloud-based quantum computer services. As quantum computers become more widely accessible, potentially malicious users could try to execute their code on the machines to leak information from other users, to interfere with or manipulate results of other users, or to reverse engineer the underlying quantum computer architecture and its intellectual property, for example. To analyze such new security threats to cloud-based quantum computers, this work first proposes and explores different types of quantum computer viruses. This work shows that quantum viruses can impact outcomes of Grover’s search algorithm or machine learning classification algorithms running on quantum computers, for example. The work then proposes a first of its kind quantum computer antivirus as a new means of protecting the expensive and fragile quantum computer hardware from quantum computer viruses. The antivirus can analyze quantum computer programs, also called circuits, and detect possibly malicious ones before they execute on quantum computer hardware. As a compile-time technique, it does not introduce any new overhead at run-time of the quantum computer.

DOI
10.1007/978-3-032-09303-5_12

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The development of quantum computers has been advancing rapidly in recent years. In addition to researchers and companies building bigger and bigger machines, these computers are already being actively connected to the internet and offered as cloud-based quantum computer services. As quantum computers become more widely accessible, potentially malicious users could try to execute their code on the machines to leak information from other users, to interfere with or manipulate results of other users, or to reverse engineer the underlying quantum computer architecture and its intellectual property, for example. To analyze such new security threats to cloud-based quantum computers, this work first proposes and explores different types of quantum computer viruses. This work shows that quantum viruses can impact outcomes of Grover’s search algorithm or machine learning classification algorithms running on quantum computers, for example. The work then proposes a first of its kind quantum computer antivirus as a new means of protecting the expensive and fragile quantum computer hardware from quantum computer viruses. The antivirus can analyze quantum computer programs, also called circuits, and detect possibly malicious ones before they execute on quantum computer hardware. As a compile-time technique, it does not introduce any new overhead at run-time of the quantum computer.
Researchers are today exploring models for cloud-based usage of quantum computers where multi-tenancy can be used to share quantum computer hard-ware among multiple users. Multi-tenancy has a promise of allowing better utilization of the quantum computer hardware, but also opens up the quantum computer to new types of security attacks. As this and other recent research shows, it is possible to perform a fault injection attack using crosstalk on quantum computers when a victim and attacker circuits are instantiated as co-tenants on the same quantum computer. To ensure such attacks do not happen, this paper proposes that new techniques should be developed to help catch malicious circuits before they are loaded onto quantum computer hardware. Following ideas from classical computers, a compile-time technique can be designed to scan quantum computer programs for mali-cious or suspicious code patterns before they are compiled into quantum circuits that run on a quantum computer. This paper presents ongoing work which demonstrates how crosstalk can affect Grover's algorithm, and then presents suggestions of how quantum programs could be analyzed to catch circuits that generate large amounts of crosstalk with malicious intent.
Rapidly evolving research on quantum computers brings closer reality of practical quantum computers that can solve previously untractable problems. However, as these computers become more powerful, they will process and generate valuable data and intellectual property, making them targets of security attacks. As a result, there is a need to develop architectures for securing quantum computers and the computation. This work presents emerging ideas on design of a trusted quantum computer controller as a pivotal component in securing quantum computing systems. At its core, a trusted controller acts to protect the privacy and security of user's circuits executing on the quantum computer itself. In this work, the classical controller used to generate control pulses for quantum computers is augmented with trusted hardware. The trusted classical hardware can analyze and manipulate circuits and instructions before generating control pulses sent to the untrusted, quantum processing unit. This work analyzes the promises of trusted controller and presents ideas for design of secure cloud-based quantum computers.
Quantum computing (QC) is an emerging paradigm with the potential to transform numerous application domains by addressing classically intractable problems. However, its growing presence in cyberspace has introduced new security and privacy challenges. Similar to classical computing systems, the QC stack including software and hardware relies extensively on third parties, many of which are emerging and trust-seeking or less-trusted. This stack often contains sensitive intellectual property (IP) that demands protection. Unique features of quantum systems can enable classical-style attacks: for instance, crosstalk in multitenant settings can facilitate fault-injection attacks, while malicious calibration services can misreport error rates or miscalibrate qubits to induce denial-of-service (DoS) conditions. Given the high cost and limited availability of likely trustworthy quantum hardware, users may be enticed to explore emerging and trust-seeking but cheaper and readily available quantum hardware, which can enable the stealth of IP and tampering of quantum programs and/or computation outcomes. Similarly, emerging compilation services may compromise circuit confidentiality or insert Trojans. Despite the strategic significance of QC and its potential to process sensitive information, its security and privacy concerns remain underexplored. This article presents a comprehensive overview of QC fundamentals, key vulnerabilities, recent attack vectors, and corresponding defenses, and concludes with directions for future research to strengthen the quantum security community.
The rapid growth of interest in quantum computing has brought about the need to secure these powerful machines against a range of physical attacks. As qubit counts increase and quantum computers achieve higher levels of fidelity, their potential to execute novel algorithms and generate sensitive intellectual property becomes more promising. However, there is a significant gap in our understanding of the vulnerabilities these computers face in terms of security and privacy attacks. Among the potential threats are physical attacks, including those orchestrated by malicious insiders within data centers where the quantum computers are located, which could compromise the integrity of computations and resulting data. This paper presents an exploration of fault-injection attacks as one class of physical attacks on quantum computers. This work first introduces a classification of fault-injection attacks and strategies, including the domain of fault-injection attacks, the fault targets, and fault manifestations in quantum computers. The resulting classification highlights the potential threats that exist. By shedding light on the vulnerabilities of quantum computers to fault-injection attacks, this work contributes to the development of robust security measures for this emerging technology.
The development of quantum computers has been advancing rapidly in recent years. As quantum computers become more widely accessible, potentially malicious users could try to execute their code on the machines to leak information from other users, interfere with or manipulate the results of other users, or reverse engineer the underlying quantum computer architecture and its intellectual property. Among different security threats, previous work has demonstrated information leakage across the reset operations, and it then proposed a secure reset operation could be an enabling technology that allows the sharing of a quantum computer among different users or different quantum programs of the same user. In this study, we delve deeper into the reset attack, aiming to augment its efficacy and capabilities and the countermeasure to protect from this attack. First, we propose a set of new extended reset attacks that could be more stealthy by hiding the intention of the attacker's circuit. This work shows various concealing circuits and how attackers can retrieve information from the execution of a previous shot of a circuit, even if the concealing circuit is used between the reset operation (of the victim, after the shot of the circuit is executed) and the measurement (of the attacker). Second, based on the uncovered new possible attacks, this work proposes a set of heuristic checks that could be applied at transpile time to check for the existence of malicious circuits that try to steal information via the attack on the reset operation. Unlike run-time protection or added secure reset gates, this work proposes a complimentary, compile-time security solution to the attacks on reset operation.
Encryption is required to address the ongoing issue of information security within communication networks. In the second part of the 20th century, quantum computing was first utilized to crack encryption protocols with the SHOR algorithm's development. The transformation from traditional to computational has the possibility of jeopardizing the protection of the current transaction system, even though recent improvements in QC functionality have increased the privacy and security, integrity, and accessibility of networks by shielding them from attacks like eavesdropping. This research adopts a comprehensive literature review approach to clarify the effects of quantum computers on information security. In addition, the study provides a summary of current efforts to guard against quantum attacks. Examining all suggested information security and privacy safeguards, this study examines the additional issue that quantum computers would severely damage information security.