Automatically identifying imperfections and attacks in practical quantum key distribution systems via machine learning

The realistic security of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems is currently a hot research topic in the field of quantum communications. There are always defects in practical devices, and eavesdroppers can make use of the security risk points of various devices to obtain key information. To date, current types of security analysis tend to analyze each security risk point individually, thereby posing great challenges for the overall security evaluation of QKD systems. In this paper, for the first time, we employ machine learning algorithms to identify the defects of different devices and certain attacks in real time, with an accuracy of 98%. It provides a novel solution for the practical security evaluation of QKD systems, thereby addressing the bottleneck problem of multiple risk points being difficult to address simultaneously in QKD systems, thus paving the way for the future large-scale application of quantum communication networks.