Broken Quantum: A Systematic Formal Verification Study of Security Vulnerabilities Across the Open-Source Quantum Computing Simulator Ecosystem

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.06712v2
• Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2026 01:19:45 GMT
• Title: Broken Quantum: A Systematic Formal Verification Study of Security Vulnerabilities Across the Open-Source Quantum Computing Simulator Ecosystem
• Abstract summary: Broken Quantum is the first comprehensive security audit of the open-source quantum computing simulator ecosystem.<n>We analyze 45 open-source quantum simulation frameworks from 22 organizations spanning 12 countries.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Quantum computing simulators form the classical software foundation on which virtually all quantum algorithm research depends. We present Broken Quantum, the first comprehensive formal security audit of the open-source quantum computing simulator ecosystem. Applying COBALT QAI -- a four-module static analysis engine backed by the Z3 SMT solver -- we analyze 45 open-source quantum simulation frameworks from 22 organizations spanning 12 countries. We identify 547 security findings (40 CRITICAL, 492 HIGH, 15 MEDIUM) across four vulnerability classes: CWE-125/190 (C++ memory corruption), CWE-400 (Python resource exhaustion), CWE-502/94 (unsafe deserialization and code injection), and CWE-77/22 (QASM injection -- a novel, quantum-specific attack vector with no classical analog). All 13 vulnerability patterns are formally verified via Z3 satisfiability proofs (13/13 SAT). The 32-qubit boundary emerges as a consistent formal threshold in both C++ and Python vulnerability chains. Supply chain analysis identifies the first documented case of vulnerability transfer from a commercial quantum framework into US national laboratory infrastructure (IBM Qiskit Aer to XACC/Oak Ridge National Laboratory). Nine frameworks score 100/100 under all four scanners; Qiskit Aer,Cirq, tequila, PennyLane, and 5 others score 0/100.

Related papers

• Benchmarking Agents for Proving Theorems in Quantum Algorithms and Quantum Information [13.46344583931603]
  We introduce Lean-QuantumAlg-Bench and Lean-QIT-Bench, two Lean 4 benchmarks containing 36 and 40 theorem-completion tasks for quantum algorithms and quantum information theory, respectively.<n>We evaluate four models-GPT-5.5, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4-Pro, and MiniMax M3-within a common theorem-proving framework under two settings.<n>The highest difficulty-weighted scores are 60.4 out of 100 on the quantum-algorithm benchmark and 59.6 out of 100 on the quantum-information benchmark.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-07-23T17:19:21Z)
• Quantum Cryptanalysis on IBM Quantum Hardware: Extending Even--Mansour Period Recovery from $N=4$ to $N=10$ [2.0723828938300684]
  We report genuine-un-compiled, textbook-faithful-quantum cryptanalysis of symmetric-cipher structures executed on real IBM quantum hardware.<n>Using Simon's algorithm we recover the hidden period of the Even-Mansour cipher up to security parameter N = 10 on real hardware.<n>A 21-qubit block-10 instance is verified in simulation and submitted to hardware.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-07-20T04:29:44Z)
• Quantum-Safe Code Auditing: LLM-Assisted Static Analysis and Quantum-Aware Risk Scoring for Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration [0.0]
  Quantum-Safe Code is a quantum-aware static analysis framework.<n>It uses 15 classes of quantum-vulnerable primitives and a Variational Bouncysolver (VQE) model.<n>On a sample of 602 labelled instances, we achieve 71.98% precision, 100% recall, and an F1 score of 83.71%.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-04-01T07:10:17Z)
• QR-SPPS: Quantum-Native Retail Supply Chain Risk Simulation via VQE, ADAPT-VQE Counterfactual Policy Ranking, and DOS-QPE Boltzmann Tail Risk Quantification [0.0]
  We present QR-SPPS (Quantum-Native Retail Shock Propagation and Policy Stress Simulator), a three-algorithm quantum pipeline implemented using the Qiskit framework.<n>First, a 40-node, 4-tier retail supply network is encoded as a 40-qubit Ising Hamiltonian using OpenFermion QubitOperator.<n>Second, a hardware-efficient VQE circuit finds the ground-state stress distribution with zero error.<n>Third, we introduce the first application of ADAPT-VQE screening to counterfactual macroeconomic policy evaluation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-03-21T07:10:29Z)
• Post-Quantum Cryptography from Quantum Stabilizer Decoding [40.84312119358882]
  Post-quantum cryptography currently rests on a small number of hardness assumptions.<n>We argue that decoding random quantum stabilizer codes is an excellent candidate.<n>We prove that the average-case hardness of quantum stabilizer decoding implies the core primitives of classical Cryptomania.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-03-19T16:35:31Z)
• Noise-Resistant Feature-Aware Attack Detection Using Quantum Machine Learning [43.509065918669314]
  Continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) is a quantum communication technology that offers an unconditional security guarantee.<n>We propose a quantum machine learning (QML)-based attack detection framework (QML-ADF) that safeguards the security of high-rate CV-QKD systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2026-01-11T03:40:45Z)
• Quantum Resource Analysis of Low-Round Keccak/SHA-3 Preimage Attack: From Classical 2^57.8 to Quantum 2^28.9 using Qiskit Modeling [0.0]
  This paper presents a hardware-conscious analysis of the quantum acceleration of the classical 3-round Keccak-256 preimage attack using Grover's Algorithm.<n>We derive that a 3-round Keccak quantum oracle requires: 9,600 Toffoli gates (with uncomputation for revers); 3,200 logical qubits (1,600 state + 1,600 auxiliary); 7.47 * 1013 total 2-qubit gates (full Grover search); 3.2 million physical qubits (with quantum error correction)<n>These barriers -- particularly the physical qubit requirements, circuit depth, and error accumulation -- render the quantum attack infeasible for
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-12-15T17:12:43Z)
• CyberGym: Evaluating AI Agents' Real-World Cybersecurity Capabilities at Scale [45.97598662617568]
  We introduce CyberGym, a large-scale benchmark featuring 1,507 real-world vulnerabilities across 188 software projects.<n>We show that CyberGym leads to the discovery of 35 zero-day vulnerabilities and 17 historically incomplete patches.<n>These results underscore that CyberGym is not only a robust benchmark for measuring AI's progress in cybersecurity but also a platform for creating direct, real-world security impact.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-06-03T07:35:14Z)
• Efficient Quantum-Safe Homomorphic Encryption for Quantum Computer Programs [0.0]
  homomorphic encryption is lifted to the quantum setting by replacing composite-order groups with Module Learning-Errors (MLWE) lattices.<n>We formalize security with the qIND-CPA game that allows coherent access to the encryption oracle.<n>Performance analysis shows that the extra lattice arithmetic fits inside today's QPU idle windows.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-04-30T00:08:43Z)
• On the practicality of quantum sieving algorithms for the shortest vector problem [42.70026220176376]
  lattice-based cryptography is one of the main candidates of post-quantum cryptography.<n> cryptographic security against quantum attackers is based on lattice problems like the shortest vector problem (SVP)<n>Asymptotic quantum speedups for solving SVP are known and rely on Grover's search.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-10-17T16:54:41Z)
• Technology and Performance Benchmarks of IQM's 20-Qubit Quantum Computer [56.435136806763055]
  IQM Quantum Computers is described covering both the QPU and the rest of the full-stack quantum computer. The focus is on a 20-qubit quantum computer featuring the Garnet QPU and its architecture, which we will scale up to 150 qubits. We present QPU and system-level benchmarks, including a median 2-qubit gate fidelity of 99.5% and genuinely entangling all 20 qubits in a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-08-22T14:26:10Z)
• Can Quantum Computers Do Nothing? [44.99833362998488]
  In idling qubits, information can 'leak' into neighbouring qubits, become non-locally distributed, and ultimately inaccessible. No information-theoretic protocol exists to quantify this information loss due to internal dynamics. We implement this protocol in over 3500 experiments carried out across 4 months on IBM's entire Falcon 5.11 series of processors.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-06-24T17:59:45Z)
• QuanTest: Entanglement-Guided Testing of Quantum Neural Network Systems [45.18451374144537]
  Quantum Neural Network (QNN) combines the Deep Learning (DL) principle with the fundamental theory of quantum mechanics to achieve machine learning tasks with quantum acceleration. QNN systems differ significantly from traditional quantum software and classical DL systems, posing critical challenges for QNN testing. We propose QuanTest, a quantum entanglement-guided adversarial testing framework to uncover potential erroneous behaviors in QNN systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-02-20T12:11:28Z)
• Classical Chaos in Quantum Computers [39.58317527488534]
  Current-day quantum processors, comprising 50-100 qubits, operate outside the range of quantum simulation on classical computers. We demonstrate that the simulation of classical limits can be a potent diagnostic tool potentially mitigating this problem. We find that classical and quantum simulations lead to similar stability metrics in systems with $mathcalO$ transmons.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-04-27T18:00:04Z)
• Experimental Demonstration of Sequential Multiparty Quantum Secret Sharing and Quantum Conference Key Agreement [5.666056657438205]
  Quantum secret sharing (QSS) and quantum conference key agreement (QCKA) provide efficient encryption approaches for multi-party secure communication. We present three practical, scalable, verifiable (k, n) threshold QSS protocols that are secure against eavesdroppers and dishonest players.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-02-22T03:59:15Z)
• QUANTIFY: A framework for resource analysis and design verification of quantum circuits [69.43216268165402]
  QUANTIFY is an open-source framework for the quantitative analysis of quantum circuits. It is based on Google Cirq and is developed with Clifford+T circuits in mind. For benchmarking purposes QUANTIFY includes quantum memory and quantum arithmetic circuits.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-07-21T15:36:25Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.