Q-CERT · Quantum Key Distribution Certification

The project Q-CERT intends to gather industrial and academic partners with strong scientific and technical backgrounds in quantum key distribution (QKD) technology, in order to establish research partnerships focused on one common high-level objective: strengthen the security of practical QKD systems by developping techniques and standards (both at the hardware and software level) that will allow cryptographic security evaluation and certification At the hardware level, we will conduct systematic studies of the potential vulnerabilities of QKD systems, by testing experimentally the feasibility of attacks on the optical and electronical layer of the systems. We will in response implement experimentally countermeasures, test their efficiency and develop the theoretical framework allowing to model the entire QKD implementation and prove its security. At the software level, we will push further a formal approach of security proof for an essential part of a practical quantum key distribution protocol : key distillation. We will specify and then develop a software library of key distillation that will present a very high-level of security assurance, validated by the use of formal methods for cryptographic protocol verification. This library will in particular include a state-of-the-art error correction module, based on unidirectional LDPC codes. In order to increase the impact of our work, and to benefit from the fruitful interaction and feedback of the research community, we will publicize parts of our results by integrating them in QKD security standards. The development of such security assurance procedures is expected to greatly strengthen the practical security of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. We will in particular write security targets for a high-performance QKD system, and for a secure infrastructure relying on a network of QKD links.