Contents
- 372 physical qubits are enough to break RSA-2048
- No need to worry, experts say
Quantum Computer Specifications described by experts
Vladislav Sopov
Qubit is basic unit of quantum information; how many qubits do we need to break the strongest cryptography scheme in 2023?
A group of Chinese cryptographers has shared a thesis on how existing quantum computers can break Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), a public-key cryptosystem used by blockchains. Meanwhile, some cryptocurrency experts are skeptical of this design.
372 physical qubits are enough to break RSA-2048
In late December 2022, a collective of researchers from Zhengzhou, Hangzhou and Beijing, led by Bao Yan and Ziqi Tan, shared a paper called Integer factorization with sublinear resources on a superconducting quantum processor. It describes a much more resource-efficient way to challenge RSA-2048 encryption than ever before.
it’s time to rotate the rsa keys anon pic.twitter.com/meHOdZYpBs
— banteg (@bantg) 4 January 2023
Previously, it was believed that a potential attacker would need millions of physical qubits to break the integrity of the aforementioned scheme, which is far beyond the current hardware capabilities of quantum computers.
Instead, the proposed algorithm can knock down barriers by factoring integers up to 48 bits with 10 superconducting qubits, the largest integer factored on a quantum device.
As a result, a potential attacker would need 372 physical qubits to break the RSA-2048 scheme. To provide context, the QuEra Computing unit of physicists at Harvard and MIT has 256 qubits, while IBM’s Condor is set to surpass the 1,000-qubit mark in 2023.
No need to worry, experts say
However, the majority of experts expressed skepticism about the latest reports from the Chinese scholars. For example Ethereum (ETH) veteran @dystopiabreaker (Suzuha) claims that the research is based on a much criticized paper:
their method relies on Schnorr’s “destroying RSA” paper from a few years ago, which has been shown not to work well with larger modules. not clear if they have overcome this limitation or not. I’m skeptical, just like with the Schnorr paper, show your work
Other experts added that once this attack becomes real, blockchain teams will easily switch to more secure cryptographic schemes.
Prominent computer scientist Bruce Schneier, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School, told the media that he did not believe “this will break RSA”.
