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Quantum Opacity, Classical Clarity: A Hybrid Approach to Quantum Circuit Obfuscation

Amal Raj, Vivek Balachandran

TL;DR

This work tackles intellectual property protection for quantum circuits executed via untrusted third-party compilers in the NISQ era. It introduces a pre-compilation obfuscation technique that inserts encryptor gates (excluding Hadamard gates) and relies on lightweight classical post-processing to decrypt the results. Evaluation across five benchmark algorithms using IBM Qiskit shows high statistical divergence (TVD > 0.5) and consistent functional disruption (negative DFC), indicating robust obfuscation. The approach offers a practical security layer that avoids complex quantum reversals or barriers, enabling secure untrusted compilation workflows for real-world quantum applications.

Abstract

Quantum computing leverages quantum mechanics to achieve computational advantages over classical hardware, but the use of third-party quantum compilers in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era introduces risks of intellectual property (IP) exposure. We address this by proposing a novel obfuscation technique that protects proprietary quantum circuits by inserting additional quantum gates prior to compilation. These gates corrupt the measurement outcomes, which are later corrected through a lightweight classical post-processing step based on the inserted gate structure. Unlike prior methods that rely on complex quantum reversals, barriers, or physical-to-virtual qubit mapping, our approach achieves obfuscation using compiler-agnostic classical correction. We evaluate the technique across five benchmark quantum algorithms -- Shor's, QAOA, Bernstein-Vazirani, Grover's, and HHL -- using IBM's Qiskit framework. The results demonstrate high Total Variation Distance (above 0.5) and consistently negative Degree of Functional Corruption (DFC), confirming both statistical and functional obfuscation. This shows that our method is a practical and effective solution for the security of quantum circuit designs in untrusted compilation flows.

Quantum Opacity, Classical Clarity: A Hybrid Approach to Quantum Circuit Obfuscation

TL;DR

This work tackles intellectual property protection for quantum circuits executed via untrusted third-party compilers in the NISQ era. It introduces a pre-compilation obfuscation technique that inserts encryptor gates (excluding Hadamard gates) and relies on lightweight classical post-processing to decrypt the results. Evaluation across five benchmark algorithms using IBM Qiskit shows high statistical divergence (TVD > 0.5) and consistent functional disruption (negative DFC), indicating robust obfuscation. The approach offers a practical security layer that avoids complex quantum reversals or barriers, enabling secure untrusted compilation workflows for real-world quantum applications.

Abstract

Quantum computing leverages quantum mechanics to achieve computational advantages over classical hardware, but the use of third-party quantum compilers in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era introduces risks of intellectual property (IP) exposure. We address this by proposing a novel obfuscation technique that protects proprietary quantum circuits by inserting additional quantum gates prior to compilation. These gates corrupt the measurement outcomes, which are later corrected through a lightweight classical post-processing step based on the inserted gate structure. Unlike prior methods that rely on complex quantum reversals, barriers, or physical-to-virtual qubit mapping, our approach achieves obfuscation using compiler-agnostic classical correction. We evaluate the technique across five benchmark quantum algorithms -- Shor's, QAOA, Bernstein-Vazirani, Grover's, and HHL -- using IBM's Qiskit framework. The results demonstrate high Total Variation Distance (above 0.5) and consistently negative Degree of Functional Corruption (DFC), confirming both statistical and functional obfuscation. This shows that our method is a practical and effective solution for the security of quantum circuit designs in untrusted compilation flows.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 25 sections, 3 equations, 11 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Proposed Idea
  3. Organization of the Paper
  4. Background
  5. Basics of Quantum Computing
  6. Qubits
  7. Quantum Gates
  8. Compilation Process
  9. Measurement Operation
  10. Related Works
  11. Metrics
  12. Total Variation Distance
  13. Degree of Functional Corruption
  14. Proposed Obfuscation Technique
  15. Methodology
  16. ...and 10 more sections

Figures (11)

  • Figure 1: Workflow of our proposed idea
  • Figure 3: QAOA Circuit
  • Figure 4: Histogram showing measurement count of the QAOA circuit
  • Figure 5: QAOA circuit with newly added gates
  • Figure 6: Measurement results after addition of extra gates
  • ...and 6 more figures