Underwater Wavelength Attack on Discrete Modulated Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution

Abstract

The wavelength attack utilizes the dependence of beam splitters (BSs) on wavelength to cause legitimate users Alice and Bob to underestimate their excess noise so that Eve can steal more secret keys without being detected. Recently, the wavelength attack on Gaussian-modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) has been researched in both fiber and atmospheric channels. However, the wavelength attack may also pose a threat to the case of ocean turbulent channels, which are vital for the secure communication of both ocean sensor networks and submarines. In this work, we propose two wavelength attack schemes on underwater discrete modulated (DM) CV-QKD protocol, which is effective for the case with and without local oscillator (LO) intensity monitor, respectively. In terms of the transmittance properties of the fused biconical taper (FBT) BS, two sets of wavelengths are determined for Eve’s pulse manipulation, which are all located in the so-called blue–green band. The derived successful criterion shows that both attack schemes can control the estimated excess noise of Alice and Bob close to zero by selecting the corresponding condition parameters based on channel transmittance. Additionally, our numerical analysis shows that Eve can steal more bits when the wavelength attack controls the value of the estimated excess noise closer to zero.

Keywords

• wavelength attack
• continuous-variable quantum key distribution
• discrete modulated
• underwater