Laser Damage Attack on Quantum Communication Systems

The laser damage attack employs high-power laser pulses to compromise specific components within a quantum communication system. This type of attack can result in various outcomes, including the creation of backdoors for further quantum attacks like photon number splitting (PNS) or Trojan-horse attacks, degradation of system performance (e.g., reduced detector efficiency), or a Denial-of-Service (DoS) situation, such as completely blinding a detector.


QID: A-0058
Tier: T0
Type: Hybrid
Tactic: Initial Access
Created: 2024-04-05
Updated: 2024-05-24

Technique → Countermeasures

List of countermeasures applicable to this technique.

Items: 3
Description Countermeasure

Employment of optical isolator, especially on the transmitter side.

Employment of watchdog monitoring, especially on the transmitter side.

Hardware self-characterisation and monitoring, especially on the receiver side.