A Modular Benchmark of Variational Quantum Attack Algorithms for S-DES
Abstract
Variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) have emerged as a promising approach to quantum cryptanalysis on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. Although numerous variational attack schemes have been proposed for symmetric cryptosystems, a systematic and modular benchmarking framework to evaluate their performance is still lacking. In this work, we present a comprehensive benchmark study of variational quantum attacks on the Simplified Data Encryption Standard (S-DES), focusing on the modular design choices that determine attack efficiency. We formulate variational quantum attacks within a unified framework consisting of four components: initial state preparation, parameterized circuit (Ansatz) design, cost function construction, and classical optimization. Through numerical simulations, we systematically compare representative design alternatives and evaluate their combinations in terms of convergence behavior, success probability, and effective time complexity. We further introduce standardized metrics for assessing variational quantum attack performance. Our results reveal clear performance hierarchies among different modular configurations and show that carefully optimized designs can significantly outperform naive quantum search. This work establishes a principled benchmark methodology for variational quantum cryptanalysis and positions S-DES as a practical testbed for evaluating quantum attacks on symmetric ciphers in the NISQ era.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{wang2026modular,
title = {{A Modular Benchmark of Variational Quantum Attack Algorithms for S-DES}},
author = {Zeguo Wang and Quanfeng Lu and Wentao Yang and Shijie Wei and Gui-Lu Long and Kai Wen},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.30143},
eprint = {2606.30143},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30143},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Modular Benchmark of Variational Quantum Attack Algorithms for S-DES
AU - Zeguo Wang
AU - Quanfeng Lu
AU - Wentao Yang
AU - Shijie Wei
AU - Gui-Lu Long
AU - Kai Wen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.30143
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30143
AB - Variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) have emerged as a promising approach to quantum cryptanalysis on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. Although numerous variational attack schemes have been proposed for symmetric cryptosystems, a systematic and modular benchmarking framework to evaluate their performance is still lacking. In this work, we present a comprehensive benchmark study of variational quantum attacks on the Simplified Data Encryption Standard (S-DES), focusing on the modular design choices that determine attack efficiency. We formulate variational quantum attacks within a unified framework consisting of four components: initial state preparation, parameterized circuit (Ansatz) design, cost function construction, and classical optimization. Through numerical simulations, we systematically compare representative design alternatives and evaluate their combinations in terms of convergence behavior, success probability, and effective time complexity. We further introduce standardized metrics for assessing variational quantum attack performance. Our results reveal clear performance hierarchies among different modular configurations and show that carefully optimized designs can significantly outperform naive quantum search. This work establishes a principled benchmark methodology for variational quantum cryptanalysis and positions S-DES as a practical testbed for evaluating quantum attacks on symmetric ciphers in the NISQ era.
ER -