Morning Edition · Wednesday, July 22, 2026Published at 1:47 AM EDT · New York

Researchers Run Textbook Quantum Cryptanalysis on Real IBM Hardware

Using Simon's algorithm on an IBM Heron-generation machine, the team recovered hidden periods in an Even-Mansour cipher structure, scaling from N=4 to N=10.

A new arXiv preprint reports what the authors describe as genuine, uncompiled, textbook-faithful quantum cryptanalysis executed on real IBM quantum hardware, an ibmkingston machine of the Heron generation. Using Simon's algorithm, which fin…