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Completed Projects

Completed Projecets of the HOCOS department

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EMNESS: European Master Network on Embedded System Security (Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership)

Funded between 2021 and 2024

Partner Universities: University of Grenoble Alpes (coordinator), University of Freiburg, Polytechnic University of Torino, University of Piraeus, Polytechnic University of Catalonia

Summary: The EMNESS project created an interconnected European network of Universities that provided a high-quality educational program for Reliability and Hardware Security. It ameliorated the already existing educational programs and promoted new learning and teaching approaches through the use of digital technology and international collaboration. New courses – lectures, labs and case studies – were created and are available from the project website. Our contributions included the content on system-level test, side-channel attacks on FPGAs and security certification.

Project site

QORA – Quantum optimization using resilient algorithms (Project in the Competence Center Quantum Computing Baden-Württemberg)

Funded between 2021 and 2024

Partners: Dr. Thomas Wellens, Fraunhofer IAF, Prof. Gerhard Hellstern, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg, Ravensburg, Prof. Guido Burkard, University of Constance, Prof. Daniel Braun, University of Tübingen, Prof. Stefanie Barz, University of Stuttgart

Supported groupmember: Yanjun Ji

Summary: In the QORA project, optimization methods for problems that arise in the financial sector have been developed based on the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA). They were analyzed theoretically and tested on the quantum computer IBM Quantum System One in Ehningen near Stuttgart. The focus of ITI-HOCOS was the development of transpilation and mapping methods to improve the performance of portfolio optimization and other related tasks on today’s noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers.

Project site

Representative publications

2024
1. Improving the performance of digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization via algorithm-oriented qubit mapping. Yanjun Ji; Kathrin F. Koenig and Ilia Polian. Phys. Rev. A 110, (September 2024), pp. 32421. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.110.032421
  BibTeX
  @article{PhysRevA.110.032421, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Ji, Yanjun and Koenig, Kathrin F. and Polian, Ilia}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.110.032421}, journal = {Phys. Rev. A}, month = {09}, number = 3, numpages = {26}, pages = 032421, project = {QORA}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {Improving the performance of digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization via algorithm-oriented qubit mapping}, url = {https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.110.032421}, volume = 110, year = 2024 }
  Link
  https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.110.032421
  DOI
  10.1103/PhysRevA.110.032421
2. Algorithm-Oriented Qubit Mapping for Variational Quantum Algorithms. Yanjun Ji; Xi Chen; Ilia Polian and Yue Ban. 2024.
  - BibTeX
  - Link
  BibTeX
  @misc{ji2024algorithmorientedqubitmappingvariational, abteilung = {hocos}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, author = {Ji, Yanjun and Chen, Xi and Polian, Ilia and Ban, Yue}, eprint = {2310.09826}, primaryclass = {quant-ph}, project = {QORA}, title = {Algorithm-Oriented Qubit Mapping for Variational Quantum Algorithms}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.09826}, year = 2024 }
  Link
  https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.09826
2022
1. Benchmarking the performance of portfolio optimization with QAOA. Daniel Brandhofer, Sebastianand Braun; Vanessa Dehn; Gerhard Hellstern; Matthias Hüls; Yanjun Ji; Ilia Polian; Amandeep Singh Bhatia and Thomas Wellens. Quantum Information Processing 22, (December 2022), pp. 25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-022-03766-5
  Abstract
  We present a detailed study of portfolio optimization using different versions of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). For a given list of assets, the portfolio optimization problem is formulated as quadratic binary optimization constrained on the number of assets contained in the portfolio. QAOA has been suggested as a possible candidate for solving this problem (and similar combinatorial optimization problems) more efficiently than classical computers in the case of a sufficiently large number of assets. However, the practical implementation of this algorithm requires a careful consideration of several technical issues, not all of which are discussed in the present literature. The present article intends to fill this gap and thereby provides the reader with a useful guide for applying QAOA to the portfolio optimization problem (and similar problems). In particular, we will discuss several possible choices of the variational form and of different classical algorithms for finding the corresponding optimized parameters. Viewing at the application of QAOA on error-prone NISQ hardware, we also analyse the influence of statistical sampling errors (due to a finite number of shots) and gate and readout errors (due to imperfect quantum hardware). Finally, we define a criterion for distinguishing between `easy' and `hard' instances of the portfolio optimization problem.
  BibTeX
  @article{Brandhofer2022, abstract = {We present a detailed study of portfolio optimization using different versions of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). For a given list of assets, the portfolio optimization problem is formulated as quadratic binary optimization constrained on the number of assets contained in the portfolio. QAOA has been suggested as a possible candidate for solving this problem (and similar combinatorial optimization problems) more efficiently than classical computers in the case of a sufficiently large number of assets. However, the practical implementation of this algorithm requires a careful consideration of several technical issues, not all of which are discussed in the present literature. The present article intends to fill this gap and thereby provides the reader with a useful guide for applying QAOA to the portfolio optimization problem (and similar problems). In particular, we will discuss several possible choices of the variational form and of different classical algorithms for finding the corresponding optimized parameters. Viewing at the application of QAOA on error-prone NISQ hardware, we also analyse the influence of statistical sampling errors (due to a finite number of shots) and gate and readout errors (due to imperfect quantum hardware). Finally, we define a criterion for distinguishing between `easy' and `hard' instances of the portfolio optimization problem.}, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {{Brandhofer, Sebastianand Braun}, Daniel and Dehn, Vanessa and Hellstern, Gerhard and Hüls, Matthias and Ji, Yanjun and Polian, Ilia and Bhatia, Amandeep Singh and Wellens, Thomas}, day = 16, doi = {10.1007/s11128-022-03766-5}, issn = {1573-1332}, journal = {Quantum Information Processing}, month = {12}, number = 1, pages = 25, project = {QORA}, title = {Benchmarking the performance of portfolio optimization with QAOA}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-022-03766-5}, volume = 22, year = 2022 }
  Link
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-022-03766-5
  DOI
  10.1007/s11128-022-03766-5
2. Calibration-Aware Transpilation for Variational Quantum Optimization. Yanjun Ji; Sebastian Brandhofer and Ilia Polian. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE), 2022, pp. 204–214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/QCE53715.2022.00040
  - BibTeX
  - DOI
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{9951287, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Ji, Yanjun and Brandhofer, Sebastian and Polian, Ilia}, booktitle = {2022 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)}, doi = {10.1109/QCE53715.2022.00040}, pages = {204-214}, project = {QORA}, title = {Calibration-Aware Transpilation for Variational Quantum Optimization}, year = 2022 }
  DOI
  10.1109/QCE53715.2022.00040

Exploring the Limits of NISQ Computing: Error Analysis and Robustness-Aware Synthesis of Quantum Algorithms (IQST Graduate School Project)

Funded between 2020 and 2023

Partner: Prof. Stefanie Barz, Institute for Functional Matters and Quantum Technology, University of Stuttgart

Supported groupmember: Sebastian Brandhofer

Summary: Recent progress in quantum technologies has led to expectations of practically useful quantum computers becoming available in the not-so-far future. However, quantum states are extremely fragile in all existing technologies. This project investigated how useful NISQ computing can be achieved and studies the robustness of currently proposed NISQ-era algorithms on promising platforms.

Project site

Representative publications

2025
1. Hardware-efficient preparation of architecture-specific graph states on near-term quantum computers. Sebastian Brandhofer; Ilia Polian; Stefanie Barz and Daniel Bhatti. To appear in Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group (2025).
  - BibTeX
  BibTeX
  @article{ScientRepBPBB2025, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Brandhofer, Sebastian and Polian, Ilia and Barz, Stefanie and Bhatti, Daniel}, journal = {To appear in Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group}, project = {explore}, title = {Hardware-efficient preparation of architecture-specific graph states on near-term quantum computers.}, year = 2025 }
2023
1. Optimal Partitioning of Quantum Circuits Using Gate Cuts and Wire Cuts. Sebastian Brandhofer; Ilia Polian and Kevin Krsulich. IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering (2023), pp. 1–10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TQE.2023.3347106
  - BibTeX
  - DOI
  BibTeX
  @article{10374226, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Brandhofer, Sebastian and Polian, Ilia and Krsulich, Kevin}, doi = {10.1109/TQE.2023.3347106}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering}, pages = {1-10}, project = {explore}, title = {Optimal Partitioning of Quantum Circuits Using Gate Cuts and Wire Cuts}, year = 2023 }
  DOI
  10.1109/TQE.2023.3347106
2021
1. Error Analysis of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver Algorithm. Sebastian Brandhofer; Simon Devitt and Ilia Polian. In 2021 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Nanoscale Architectures (NANOARCH), 2021, pp. 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/NANOARCH53687.2021.9642249
  - BibTeX
  - DOI
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{VQE_ERROR, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Brandhofer, Sebastian and Devitt, Simon and Polian, Ilia}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Nanoscale Architectures (NANOARCH)}, doi = {10.1109/NANOARCH53687.2021.9642249}, pages = {1-6}, project = {explore}, title = {Error Analysis of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver Algorithm}, year = 2021 }
  DOI
  10.1109/NANOARCH53687.2021.9642249
2. Optimal Mapping for Near-Term Quantum Architectures based on Rydberg Atoms. Sebastian Brandhofer; Ilia Polian and Hans Peter Büchler. In 2021 IEEE/ACM International Conference On Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), 2021, pp. 1–7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCAD51958.2021.9643490
  - BibTeX
  - DOI
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{9643490, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Brandhofer, Sebastian and Polian, Ilia and Büchler, Hans Peter}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE/ACM International Conference On Computer Aided Design (ICCAD)}, doi = {10.1109/ICCAD51958.2021.9643490}, pages = {1-7}, project = {explore}, title = {Optimal Mapping for Near-Term Quantum Architectures based on Rydberg Atoms}, year = 2021 }
  DOI
  10.1109/ICCAD51958.2021.9643490

Algebraic Fault Attacks (DFG Project)

Funded between 2015 and 2020

Partners: Prof. Bernd Becker, University of Freiburg, Prof. Martin Kreuzer, University of Passau

Collaborator: Osnat Keren, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Funded groupmembers: Mael Gay, Devanshi Upadhyaya

Summary: The continued transition to cyberphysical systems, which are characterized by a high degree of connectivity and a tight coupling of (embedded) computers with the physical world and which often lack perimeter protection, increases the relevance of physical attacks on cryptographic modules. This project investigated an essential class of physical attacks, namely fault-injection attacks, and the use of algebraic solving techniques as part of such attacks. Solving methods based on a tight integration of border basis solvers with SAT solvers have been developed, culminating in the automatic fault attack framework AutoFault. Cross-level protection methods against fault attacks based on security-oriented nonlinear error-detecting codes and new masking approaches effective against side-channel and fault attacks at the same time were developed and demonstrated in actual hardware.

Representative publications

2020
1. Error control scheme for malicious and natural faults in cryptographic modules. Mael Gay; Batya Karp; Osnat Keren and Ilia Polian. Journal of Cryptographic Engineering 10, (June 2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13389-020-00234-7
  Abstract
  Today’s electronic systems must simultaneously fulfill strict requirements on security and reliability. In particular, their cryptographic modules are exposed to faults, which can be due to natural failures (e.g., radiation or electromagnetic noise) or malicious fault-injection attacks. We present an architecture based on a new class of error-detecting codes that combine robustness properties with a minimal distance. The new architecture guarantees (with some probability) the detection of faults injected by an intelligent and strategic adversary who can precisely control the disturbance. At the same time it supports automatic correction of low-multiplicity faults. To this end, we discuss an efficient technique to correct single nibble/byte errors while avoiding full syndrome analysis. We also examine a Compact Protection Code (CPC)-based system level fault manager that considers this code an inner code (and the CPC as its outer code). We report experimental results obtained by physical fault injection on the SAKURA-G FPGA board. The experimental results reconfirm the assumption that faults may cause an arbitrary number of bit flips. They indicate that a combined inner–outer coding scheme can significantly reduce the number of fault events that go undetected due to erroneous corrections of the inner code.
  BibTeX
  @article{gay2020error, abstract = {Today’s electronic systems must simultaneously fulfill strict requirements on security and reliability. In particular, their cryptographic modules are exposed to faults, which can be due to natural failures (e.g., radiation or electromagnetic noise) or malicious fault-injection attacks. We present an architecture based on a new class of error-detecting codes that combine robustness properties with a minimal distance. The new architecture guarantees (with some probability) the detection of faults injected by an intelligent and strategic adversary who can precisely control the disturbance. At the same time it supports automatic correction of low-multiplicity faults. To this end, we discuss an efficient technique to correct single nibble/byte errors while avoiding full syndrome analysis. We also examine a Compact Protection Code (CPC)-based system level fault manager that considers this code an inner code (and the CPC as its outer code). We report experimental results obtained by physical fault injection on the SAKURA-G FPGA board. The experimental results reconfirm the assumption that faults may cause an arbitrary number of bit flips. They indicate that a combined inner–outer coding scheme can significantly reduce the number of fault events that go undetected due to erroneous corrections of the inner code.}, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Gay, Mael and Karp, Batya and Keren, Osnat and Polian, Ilia}, doi = {10.1007/s13389-020-00234-7}, issn = {2190-8516}, journal = {Journal of Cryptographic Engineering}, month = {06}, project = {algefa}, title = {Error control scheme for malicious and natural faults in cryptographic modules}, volume = 10, year = 2020 }
  DOI
  10.1007/s13389-020-00234-7
2019
1. Hardware-Oriented Algebraic Fault Attack Framework with Multiple Fault Injection Support. Mael Gay; Tobias Paxian; Devanshi Upadhyaya; Bernd Becker and Ilia Polian. In 2019 Workshop on Fault Diagnosis and Tolerance in Cryptography (FDTC), 2019, pp. 25–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/FDTC.2019.00012
  Abstract
  The evaluation of fault attacks on security-critical hardware implementations of cryptographic primitives is an important concern. In such regards, we have created a framework for automated construction of fault attacks on hardware realization of ciphers. The framework can be used to quickly evaluate any cipher implementations, including any optimisations. It takes the circuit description of the cipher and the fault model as input. The output of the framework is a set of algebraic equations, such as conjunctive normal form (CNF) clauses, which is then fed to a SAT solver. We consider both attacking an actual implementation of a cipher on an field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform using a fault injector and the evaluation of an early design of the cipher using idealized fault models. We report the successful application of our hardware-oriented framework to a collection of ciphers, including the advanced encryption standard (AES), and the lightweight block ciphers LED and PRESENT. The corresponding results and a discussion of the impact to different fault models on our framework are shown. Moreover, we report significant improvements compared to similar frameworks, such as speedups or more advanced features. Our framework is the first algebraic fault attack (AFA) tool to evaluate the state-of-the art cipher LED-64, PRESENT and full-scale AES using only hardware-oriented structural cipher descriptions.
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{8844472, abstract = {The evaluation of fault attacks on security-critical hardware implementations of cryptographic primitives is an important concern. In such regards, we have created a framework for automated construction of fault attacks on hardware realization of ciphers. The framework can be used to quickly evaluate any cipher implementations, including any optimisations. It takes the circuit description of the cipher and the fault model as input. The output of the framework is a set of algebraic equations, such as conjunctive normal form (CNF) clauses, which is then fed to a SAT solver. We consider both attacking an actual implementation of a cipher on an field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform using a fault injector and the evaluation of an early design of the cipher using idealized fault models. We report the successful application of our hardware-oriented framework to a collection of ciphers, including the advanced encryption standard (AES), and the lightweight block ciphers LED and PRESENT. The corresponding results and a discussion of the impact to different fault models on our framework are shown. Moreover, we report significant improvements compared to similar frameworks, such as speedups or more advanced features. Our framework is the first algebraic fault attack (AFA) tool to evaluate the state-of-the art cipher LED-64, PRESENT and full-scale AES using only hardware-oriented structural cipher descriptions.}, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Gay, Mael and Paxian, Tobias and Upadhyaya, Devanshi and Becker, Bernd and Polian, Ilia}, booktitle = {2019 Workshop on Fault Diagnosis and Tolerance in Cryptography (FDTC)}, doi = {10.1109/FDTC.2019.00012}, month = {08}, pages = {25-32}, project = {algefa}, title = {Hardware-Oriented Algebraic Fault Attack Framework with Multiple Fault Injection Support}, year = 2019 }
  DOI
  10.1109/FDTC.2019.00012
2. Toward Error-Correcting Architectures for Cryptographic Circuits Based on Rabii–Keren Codes. Mael Gay; Batya Karp; Osnat Keren and Ilia Polian. IEEE Embedded Systems Letters 11, (2019), pp. 115–118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LES.2019.2907232
  - BibTeX
  - DOI
  BibTeX
  @article{8673322, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Gay, Mael and Karp, Batya and Keren, Osnat and Polian, Ilia}, doi = {10.1109/LES.2019.2907232}, journal = {IEEE Embedded Systems Letters}, number = 4, pages = {115-118}, project = {algefa}, title = {Toward Error-Correcting Architectures for Cryptographic Circuits Based on Rabii–Keren Codes}, volume = 11, year = 2019 }
  DOI
  10.1109/LES.2019.2907232
2017
1. AutoFault: Towards Automatic Construction of Algebraic Fault Attacks. Jan Burchard; Mael Gay; Ange Salome Messeng Ekossono; Jan Horácek; Bernd Becker; Tobias Schubert; Martin Kreuzer and Ilia Polian. In 2017 Workshop on Fault Diagnosis and Tolerance in Cryptography, FDTC2017, Taipei, Taiwan, September 25, 2017, 2017, pp. 65–72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/FDTC.2017.13
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{DBLP:conf/fdtc/BurchardGEH00KP17, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Burchard, Jan and Gay, Mael and Ekossono, Ange Salome Messeng and Hor{\'{a}}cek, Jan and Becker, Bernd and Schubert, Tobias and Kreuzer, Martin and Polian, Ilia}, bibsource = {dblp computer science bibliography, https://dblp.org}, booktitle = {2017 Workshop on Fault Diagnosis and Tolerance in Cryptography, {FDTC}2017, Taipei, Taiwan, September 25, 2017}, crossref = {DBLP:conf/fdtc/2017}, doi = {10.1109/FDTC.2017.13}, pages = {65--72}, project = {algefa}, title = {AutoFault: Towards Automatic Construction of Algebraic Fault Attacks}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/FDTC.2017.13}, year = 2017 }
  Link
  https://doi.org/10.1109/FDTC.2017.13
  DOI
  10.1109/FDTC.2017.13

“Attacked by DeepFake – Deep Learning to Rescue” (Terra Incognita Project)

Funded in 2022

Partners: Prof. Thang Vu, Institut für Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, University of Stuttgart, Prof. Ofer Hadar, Ben Gurion University, Israel

Summary: A DeepFake is a trustworthy-looking video that strongly suggests authenticity of an event that never happened, created using Generative Adversarial Networks and other Deep Learning technology. In today’s “post-factual” society, authentic information from an authoritative source has become a scarce and valuable resource, and DeepFake videos are compromising this scarce resource. This project considered the question whether the very same Deep Learning technology that had brought us the problem of DeepFake can be part of its solution. In contrast to other approaches of its time, we focused on DeepFake detection in videos that went through various types of modifications: processing (resizing or compression), addition of a watermark for copyright protection, or noise during transmission, comparing the performance of automatic and human detection.

Supported groupmember: Swaroop Shankar Prasad

Representative publications

2022
1. Human vs. Automatic Detection of Deepfake Videos Over Noisy Channels. Swaroop Shankar Prasad; Ofer Hadar; Thang Vu and Ilia Polian. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), 2022, pp. 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICME52920.2022.9859954
  - BibTeX
  - DOI
  BibTeX
  @inproceedings{9859954, abteilung = {hocos}, author = {Prasad, Swaroop Shankar and Hadar, Ofer and Vu, Thang and Polian, Ilia}, booktitle = {2022 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME)}, doi = {10.1109/ICME52920.2022.9859954}, pages = {1-6}, project = {attackDF}, title = {Human vs. Automatic Detection of Deepfake Videos Over Noisy Channels}, year = 2022 }
  DOI
  10.1109/ICME52920.2022.9859954

Completed Projects

EMNESS: European Master Network on Embedded System Security (Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership)

QORA – Quantum optimization using resilient algorithms (Project in the Competence Center Quantum Computing Baden-Württemberg)

Representative publications

2024

BibTeX

Link

DOI

BibTeX

Link

2022

Abstract

BibTeX

Link

DOI

BibTeX

DOI

Exploring the Limits of NISQ Computing: Error Analysis and Robustness-Aware Synthesis of Quantum Algorithms (IQST Graduate School Project)

Representative publications

2025

BibTeX

2023

BibTeX

DOI

2021

BibTeX

DOI

BibTeX

DOI

Algebraic Fault Attacks (DFG Project)

Representative publications

2020

Abstract

BibTeX

DOI

2019

Abstract

BibTeX

DOI

BibTeX

DOI

2017

BibTeX

Link

DOI

“Attacked by DeepFake – Deep Learning to Rescue” (Terra Incognita Project)

Representative publications

2022

BibTeX

DOI

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