We beat Google’s zero-knowledge proof of quantum cryptanalysis

Summary: Trail of Bits published a zero-knowledge proof that improves on Google Quantum AI's quantum circuit cost estimates on all metrics, not through a quantum advance but by exploiting memory safety and logic vulnerabilities in Google's Rust prover code built on Succinct Labs' SP1 zkVM. The forged proof verifies against Google's unpatched verification code, shares the same verification key as Google's original proofs, and is cryptographically indistinguishable from a proof of real algorithmic improvement; Google has patched the proof and says its scientific claims are unaffected.
Key Takeaway: A proof that is cryptographically indistinguishable from a legitimate one was forged by abusing an unchecked deserialization path in the prover, which means anyone relying on a zero-knowledge proof to certify a result is trusting the prover's memory safety, not just the math.

Read the original at Trail of Bits Blog ↗