The advance, led by Wang Chao of Shanghai University, poses a “real and substantial threat” to the security mechanisms used in banking and military sectors, as detailed in their peer-reviewed paper published on September 30 in the Chinese Journal of Computers, an academic journal run by the China Computer Federation (CCF).
A quantum attack on encryption codes has been predicted since the idea of quantum computers was mooted.
The D-Wave Advantage, initially designed for non-cryptographic applications, was used to breach SPN-structured algorithms but has not yet cracked specific passcodes, highlighting the early-stage nature of this threat.
Despite the advances, the researchers acknowledge that limitations such as environmental interference, underdeveloped hardware, and the inability to develop a single attack method for multiple encryption systems still hinder quantum computing’s full cryptographic potential.
According to a report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the researchers acknowledged that limitations would hamper—at least for now—a full-on quantum hack.
Despite the general-purpose quantum computing field being in its early stages, with no immediate risk to modern cryptographic systems, scientists are increasingly exploring specialised quantum computers for potential uses and vulnerabilities in cybersecurity.
Wang’s team used a quantum computer from Canada’s D-Wave Systems to breach cryptographic algorithms.
The D-Wave Advantage quantum computer to targeted the Present, Gift-64, and Rectangle algorithms, called vital representatives of the Substitution-Permutation Network (SPN) structure.
This structure is foundational for advanced encryption standards (AES), widely deployed in military and financial encryption protocols. While AES-256 is often considered military-grade and the most secure encryption standard available, the study suggests that quantum computers may soon threaten such security.
Wang’s team combined the quantum annealing algorithm with conventional mathematical approaches to create a novel computational architecture. The significance of Wang’s work, according to SCMP’s anonymous expert, lies in framing a real-world encryption issue as a binary optimisation problem suitable for a quantum computer.
Despite this achievement, the researchers acknowledged the current constraints of quantum computing technology. In the report, Wang stated that while quantum computing shows promise, its development is hampered by environmental factors, immature hardware and the challenge of devising a single attack algorithm capable of breaching multiple cryptographic systems.
The study emphasises that while a quantum computer has not yet revealed the specific passcodes used in the algorithms tested, it is closer to doing so than previously achieved.
