Use-Case Denial of Service Attack on Actual Quantum Key Distribution Nodes
: QKD integration into traditional telecommunication networks is anticipated in the upcoming decades in order to maintain adequate levels of communication security. QKD establishes ITS (Information-Theoretic secure) symmetric keys between the two parties, which they may use to sustain secure flow of data even in the post-quantum era. Since QKD-keys are a valuable and scarce resource, they must be carefully maintained. This paper investigates DoS attacks on actual QKD equipment, in which an adversary with access to QKD services depletes the reserves of QKD-keys maintained at the KMS system. As a result, safety precautions are proposed in order to prevent this scenario and maintain operational QKD service.