Towards defending crosstalk-mediated attacks in multi-tenant quantum computing

TL;DR

This paper investigates security threats in multi-tenant quantum computing, focusing on crosstalk attacks on Grover's algorithm and evaluating mitigation strategies like dynamical decoupling and buffer qubits.

Contribution

It introduces and assesses two mitigation methods against crosstalk-mediated attacks, highlighting their combined effectiveness in enhancing quantum security.

Findings

Both mitigation strategies reduce attack success rates.

Combined mitigation yields the best performance improvement.

Implications for unintentional circuit interference are discussed.

Abstract

With the increasing demand for quantum hardware, shared and multi-tenant environments have been proposed to optimize resource utilization. However, the multi-tenancy paradigm in quantum computing inherently introduces security threats. This paper examines crosstalk-mediated attacks targeting three-qubit Grover's search algorithm and explores two fundamental mitigation strategies: gate-based dynamical decoupling and the use of a buffer qubit. We evaluate the effectiveness of each method individually and in combination, finding that while both strategies offer some level of attack mitigation, their combined application yields the most significant performance improvement. Beyond security vulnerabilities, our work also has implications for unintentional circuit interference that can occur when multiple quantum circuits are executed in close proximity.