Installation

Useful links

IBM Installing Quantum Safe Explorer

Pre-Reqs

For any installation, in order to use the VSCode plugin, you need to install VSCode.

OS: Windows 10 or 11 or MacOS
RAM: 16 Gigs
OpenJDK 17
Git Bash (Windows)

Installing VSCode

Windows
MacOS

Grab VSCode for windows from here

Make sure you download the system installer

Double click it and install it to this following path

Grab VSCode for MacOS from here

File will be located in your Downloads folder.

Microsoft’s OpenJDK 17 can be found here

Download it here

Go to your Downloads folder and double click the microsoft-jdk-17.0.11-windows-x64.msi file there.

Let it set the JAVA_HOME var and click Next then click Install.

Make sure you have openjdk-17 installed.

brew install openjdk@17

If you have other versions of Java installed, you might need to add this to your path:

echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@17/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

. ~/.bashrc

Downloading QSE

You can find the required installation files for your OS of choice on IBM’s Passport Advantage. Or if you’re an IBM Employee, you can find it here.

It’s important to note that these files all use the same name

Windows
MacOS

Extract them all to the same folder

File listing

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN> tree /F
Folder PATH listing
Volume serial number is 1EA9-8239
C:.
├───M0GT5EN
│       ibm-quantum-safe-explorer-1.0.1.vsix
│
├───M0GT6EN
│   │   cli.sh
│   │   LicenseAcceptance.config
│   │   version
│   │
│   ├───la_home
│   │       LA_cs
│   │       LA_de
│   │       LA_el
│   │       LA_en
│   │       LA_es
│   │       LA_fr
│   │       LA_in
│   │       LA_it
│   │       LA_ja
│   │       LA_ko
│   │       LA_lt
│   │       LA_pl
│   │       LA_pt
│   │       LA_ru
│   │       LA_sl
│   │       LA_tr
│   │       LA_zh
│   │       LA_zh_TW
│   │       notices
│   │
│   ├───lib
│   │       apiguardian-api-1.1.2.jar
│   │       commons-cli-1.5.0.jar
│   │       commons-codec-1.15.jar
│   │       commons-collections4-4.4.jar
│   │       commons-compress-1.21.jar
│   │       commons-io-2.11.0.jar
│   │       commons-lang3-3.12.0.jar
│   │       commons-math3-3.6.1.jar
│   │       commons-text-1.10.0.jar
│   │       curvesapi-1.07.jar
│   │       gson-2.10.1.jar
│   │       hamcrest-core-1.1.jar
│   │       json-simple-1.1.1.jar
│   │       jsoup-1.16.1.jar
│   │       junit-4.10.jar
│   │       junit-platform-commons-1.9.0.jar
│   │       license_metric_logger-2.1.2.202009181115.jar
│   │       log4j-api-2.18.0.jar
│   │       log4j-core-2.20.0.jar
│   │       poi-5.2.3.jar
│   │       poi-ooxml-5.2.3.jar
│   │       poi-ooxml-lite-5.2.3.jar
│   │       quantum-safe-sca-tng-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
│   │       slf4j-api-1.7.36.jar
│   │       SparseBitSet-1.2.jar
│   │       sqlite-jdbc-3.42.0.0.jar
│   │       tika-core-2.4.1.jar
│   │       xmlbeans-5.1.1.jar
│   │
│   └───swidtag
│           ibm.com_IBM_Quantum_Safe_Explorer-1.0.1.swidtag
│
└───M0GT7EN
        IBM Quantum Safe Explorer.exe

-rw-r--r--@    1 kramerro  staff    35M Jun 26 15:59 IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN(2).zip
-rw-r--r--@    1 kramerro  staff    73M Jun 26 15:58 IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN.zip
-rw-r--r--@    1 kramerro  staff   446K Jun 26 15:58 IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN(1).zip

Unzip them all to the same folder

File listing

➜  QSE git:(ross-updates) ✗ tree
.
├── M0GT4EN
│   └── IBM Quantum Safe Explorer-1.0.1.pkg
├── M0GT5EN
│   └── ibm-quantum-safe-explorer-1.0.1.vsix
└── M0GT6EN
    ├── LicenseAcceptance.config
    ├── cli.sh
    ├── la_home
    │   ├── LA_cs
    │   ├── LA_de
    │   ├── LA_el
    │   ├── LA_en
    │   ├── LA_es
    │   ├── LA_fr
    │   ├── LA_in
    │   ├── LA_it
    │   ├── LA_ja
    │   ├── LA_ko
    │   ├── LA_lt
    │   ├── LA_pl
    │   ├── LA_pt
    │   ├── LA_ru
    │   ├── LA_sl
    │   ├── LA_tr
    │   ├── LA_zh
    │   ├── LA_zh_TW
    │   └── notices
    ├── lib
    │   ├── SparseBitSet-1.2.jar
    │   ├── apiguardian-api-1.1.2.jar
    │   ├── commons-cli-1.5.0.jar
    │   ├── commons-codec-1.15.jar
    │   ├── commons-collections4-4.4.jar
    │   ├── commons-compress-1.21.jar
    │   ├── commons-io-2.11.0.jar
    │   ├── commons-lang3-3.12.0.jar
    │   ├── commons-math3-3.6.1.jar
    │   ├── commons-text-1.10.0.jar
    │   ├── curvesapi-1.07.jar
    │   ├── gson-2.10.1.jar
    │   ├── hamcrest-core-1.1.jar
    │   ├── json-simple-1.1.1.jar
    │   ├── jsoup-1.16.1.jar
    │   ├── junit-4.10.jar
    │   ├── junit-platform-commons-1.9.0.jar
    │   ├── license_metric_logger-2.1.2.202009181115.jar
    │   ├── log4j-api-2.18.0.jar
    │   ├── log4j-core-2.20.0.jar
    │   ├── poi-5.2.3.jar
    │   ├── poi-ooxml-5.2.3.jar
    │   ├── poi-ooxml-lite-5.2.3.jar
    │   ├── quantum-safe-sca-tng-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
    │   ├── slf4j-api-1.7.36.jar
    │   ├── sqlite-jdbc-3.42.0.0.jar
    │   ├── tika-core-2.4.1.jar
    │   └── xmlbeans-5.1.1.jar
    ├── swidtag
    │   └── ibm.com_IBM_Quantum_Safe_Explorer-1.0.1.swidtag
    └── version

7 directories, 53 files

Installing the Services

Windows
MacOS

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN> cd .\M0GT7EN\
PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN\M0GT7EN>

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN\M0GT7EN> & '.\IBM Quantum Safe Explorer.exe'

The following window will pop up. Go with all the defaults.

When installation is complete, the following window will pop up. Click Finish and allow it to start up the service.

Click Accept QSEwindows3

Once it’s running, don’t close the window.

In our extracted directory, run the following command with sudo and enter your admin password when prompted.

sudo installer -pkg M0GT4EN/IBM\ Quantum\ Safe\ Explorer-1.0.1.pkg -target /Applications
Password:
installer: Package name is IBM Quantum Safe Explorer
installer: Installing at base path /
installer: The install was successful.

Locate the desktop shortcut for IBM Quantum Safe Explorer and kick it off.

You should see the following windows pop up: QSEmacos2 Make sure to click Accept

The QSE service should now be running.

Warning

Do not close this window as apparently it DOES NOT continue running in the background.

Installing the IBM Quantum Safe Explorer CLI

Windows
MacOS

Simply change directory to where ever you extracted the extension. The cli.sh file will be used to perform the actual scan. Assuming you unzipped from your \Downloads directory:

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN> cd .\M0GT6EN\

Simply change directory to wherever you extracted the extension. The cli.sh file will be used to perform the actual scan. Assuming you unzipped from your ~/Downloads directory:

cd ~/Downloads/M0GT6EN

Installing VSCode plugin

Note

If using MacOS, make sure you have the code cli for MacOS enabled. This is how you do that

Change directory to where ever you extracted the extension

Windows
MacOS

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN> cd .\M0GT5EN\

Install the extension

PS C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads\IIQSE0_1.0.1_MP_EN\M0GT5EN> code --install-extension ibm-quantum-safe-explorer-1.0.1.vsix
Installing extensions...
Extension 'ibm-quantum-safe-explorer-1.0.1.vsix' was successfully installed.

cd M0GT5EN

Install the extension

code --install-extension ibm-quantum-safe-explorer-1.0.1.vsix 
Installing extensions...
Extension 'ibm-quantum-safe-explorer-1.0.1.vsix' was successfully installed.

In your running VSCode instance, click the Extensions icon in the left-hand side bar and select IBM Quantum Safe Explorer

Click on the settings for the extension Extension2

Per the current guide, the following settings must be configured:

Note

Currently as of 1.0.x only localhost is supported as qs-explorer.hostname.

The following configuration settings should be followed:

Required settings:

qs-explorer.hostname – Enter the hostname of the IBM Quantum Safe Explorer API server. Currently only localhost is supported.
qs-explorer.sourceFileExtensions – Enter the list of source file types to be scanned. For example, .java, .py, and so on.

sourceFileExtensions would be edited in the setting json. They should currently default to the following supported extensions for code scanning:

    "qs-explorer.sourceFileExtensions": [
        ".java",
        ".jar",
        ".dart",
        ".py",
        ".c"
    ]

Uninstalling the Services

Warning

There is a bug in v1.0.1 uninstall on Windows that will later cause issues when v2.x is installed, please note the instructions below.

For Windows, after running the normal “Remove Programs” to uninstall the QSE service, manually delete the qs-explorer folder from the user’s home directory. If this is not done and v2.x is later installed, it will cause the scanning to fail.

This is only an issue with the v1.0.1 uninstallation on Windows. This issue has been resolved in the v2.x uninstallation.