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Quantum Flagportation — HTB Challenge

retleave·Apr 21, 2026·7 min read

Quantum Flagportation - HTB Challenge

Info

  • Category: Quantum / Misc
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Key Topics: Quantum teleportation protocol, Bell states, Pauli corrections, qubit measurement bases

Abstract

Quantum Flagportation implements the textbook quantum teleportation protocol to encode a flag two bits at a time. The server prepares a qubit in one of four states (|0>, |1>, |+>, |->), entangles it with a Bell pair, measures the sender's qubits, and provides us with the measurement results. Our task is to apply the correct Pauli corrections to the receiver's qubit and measure it in the appropriate basis to recover each bit pair. This challenge is a direct implementation of the Bennett et al. (1993) teleportation protocol, requiring understanding of Bell states, entanglement, and classical correction channels.

The Quantum Teleportation Protocol

Background

Quantum teleportation allows the transfer of a quantum state from one location to another using a shared entangled pair and two bits of classical communication. It does not transmit the qubit itself faster than light -- the classical correction bits must be communicated through a standard channel. What it achieves is the faithful transfer of an arbitrary quantum state without directly measuring it (which would destroy the superposition).
The protocol requires three qubits:
  • q0: the qubit to teleport (held by the sender, Alice)
  • q1: Alice's half of a Bell pair
  • q2: Bob's half of the Bell pair (the receiver)

How the Server Encodes the Flag

The server reads the flag as bytes, converts to a bitstream, and processes two bits at a time. Each pair maps to a specific quantum state and measurement basis:
Bit PairQubit StateBasisDescription
00|0>ZComputational basis ground state
01|1>ZComputational basis excited state

Content Locked

This challenge is still active on HackTheBox. The full writeup will be available after retirement.