dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaFaked states attack using detector efficiency mismatch on SARG04, phase-time, DPSK, and Ekert protocols
| Authors | Vadim Makarov, Johannes Skaar |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0702262 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0702262 |
| Journal | Quant. Inf. Comp. 8, 0622 (2008) |
Abstract
In quantum cryptosystems, variations in detector efficiency can be exploited to stage a successful attack. This happens when the efficiencies of Bob's two detectors are different functions of a control parameter accessible to Eve (e.g., timing of the incoming pulses). It has previously been shown that the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol is vulnerable to this attack. In this paper, we show that several other protocols and encodings may also be vulnerable. We consider a faked states attack in the case of a partial efficiency mismatch on the Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisin 2004 (SARG04) protocol, and derive the quantum bit error rate as a function of detector efficiencies. Additionally, it is shown how faked states can in principle be constructed for quantum cryptosystems that use a phase-time encoding, the differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and the Ekert protocols.
{
"annotation_id": "b4a9fd1f-a7b1-43c3-ad57-7ea5cb6acd2b",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:33.710000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:33.710000Z",
"file_hash": "32331f65133bc2d9e6de6a406d0e10cbc9870c67a2b115c57ffef4d6e344d544",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "In quantum cryptosystems, variations in detector efficiency can be exploited\nto stage a successful attack. This happens when the efficiencies of Bob\u0027s two\ndetectors are different functions of a control parameter accessible to Eve\n(e.g., timing of the incoming pulses). It has previously been shown that the\nBennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol is vulnerable to this attack. In this\npaper, we show that several other protocols and encodings may also be\nvulnerable. We consider a faked states attack in the case of a partial\nefficiency mismatch on the Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisin 2004 (SARG04) protocol,\nand derive the quantum bit error rate as a function of detector efficiencies.\nAdditionally, it is shown how faked states can in principle be constructed for\nquantum cryptosystems that use a phase-time encoding, the differential phase\nshift keying (DPSK) and the Ekert protocols.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0702262",
"authors": [
"Vadim Makarov",
"Johannes Skaar"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"journal_ref": "Quant. Inf. Comp. 8, 0622 (2008)",
"title": "Faked states attack using detector efficiency mismatch on SARG04, phase-time, DPSK, and Ekert protocols",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0702262"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "d1a24a3c-7699-454e-89f8-0cbcea1cf165",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}