Crosstalk-Induced Row Hammer Attacks on Quantum Random Access Codes

Abstract

Quantum processors remain susceptible to crosstalk-induced effects despite the continuous evolution of their underlying hardware architectures. In this work, we experimentally investigate the effectiveness of crosstalk-induced attacks across six IBM superconducting quantum processors and one IQM processor. Our results demonstrate that such attacks can be launched across all the platforms, due to persistance of crosstalk, although their effectiveness varies significantly between devices. The probability of a measurement outcome flip in the victim qubits reaches a maximum value of $60\%$. Also, it is seen that processors sharing identical coupling graphs exhibit different vulnerability profiles, indicating that connectivity alone is insufficient to predict attack efficiency. Finally, to demonstrate the practical relevance of these attacks, we study their impact on quantum random access codes (QRACs), observing a degradation in their average success probabilities.