Quantum state sharing (QSS) is a protocol by which a (secret) quantum state may be securely split into shares, shared between multiple potentially-dishonest players, and reconstructed. Crucially, the players are each assumed to be dishonest, and so QSS requires that only a collaborating authorized subset of players can access the original secret state; any dishonest unauthorized conspiracy cannot reconstruct it. We analyze a QSS protocol involving three untrusted players and demonstrate that quantum steering is the required resource enabling the protocol to proceed securely. We analyze the level of steering required to share any single-mode Gaussian secret which enables the states to be shared with the optimal use of resources.
We demonstrate a multipartite protocol that utilizes entanglement to securely distribute and reconstruct a quantum state. A secret quantum state is encoded into a tripartite entangled state and distributed to three players. By collaborating together, a majority of the players can reconstruct the state, whilst the remaining player obtains nothing. This (2,3) threshold quantum state sharing scheme is characterized in terms of fidelity (F), signal transfer (T) and reconstruction noise (V). We demonstrate a fidelity averaged over all reconstruction permutations of 0.73 ± 0.04, a level achievable only using quantum resources.
Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is a cryptographic protocol that leverages quantum mechanics to distribute a secret among multiple parties. With respect to the classical counterpart, in QSS, the secret is encoded into quantum states and shared by a dealer such that only an authorized subsets of participants, i.e., the players, can reconstruct it. Several state-of-the-art studies aim to transpose classical secret sharing into the quantum realm, while maintaining their reliance on traditional network topologies (e.g., star, ring, and fully connected), and require that all the
nplayers calculate the secret. These studies exploit the Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state, which is a type of maximally entangled quantum state involving three or more qubits. However, none of these works account for redundancy, enhanced security/privacy features, or authentication mechanisms able to fingerprint players. To address these gaps, in this article, we introduce a new concept of QSS, which leans on a generic distributed quantum network, based on a threshold scheme, where all the players collaborate also to the routing of quantum information among them. The dealer, by exploiting a custom flexible weighting system, takes advantage of a newly defined quantum Dijkstra algorithm to select the most suitable subset of
tplayers, out of the entire set on
nplayers, to involve in the computation. To fingerprint and authenticate users, CRYSTAL-Kyber primitives are adopted, while also protecting each player’s privacy by hiding their identities. We show the effectiveness and performance of the proposed protocol by testing it against the main classical and quantum attacks, thereby improving the state-of-the-art security measures.
Superconducting microwave quantum networks is a rapidly developing field, enabling distributed quantum computing and holding a promise for hybrid architectures in quantum internet. Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is one of the key protocols for multipartite quantum networks and can provide an unconditionally secure way to share quantum states among
n players. Using microwave two-mode squeezed states as an entanglement resource, we experimentally implement a QSS protocol with
n=3, where a subset of at least
k=2 players must collaborate to faithfully reconstruct the original secret state. We demonstrate reconstructed-state fidelities that surpass the asymptotic no-cloning threshold of
Fnc=2/3 and identify a parameter regime that allows for unconditionally secure communication in the presence of an omnipotent dishonest player. Furthermore, we experimentally explore inherent connections between QSS and other important quantum information processing tasks, such as quantum dense coding and elementary quantum error correction of channel erasures. Finally, we discuss extensions of QSS and its relation to the concept of blind quantum computing.
We demonstrate a multipartite protocol to securely distribute and reconstruct a quantum state. A secret quantum state is encoded into a tripartite entangled state and distributed to three players. By collaborating, any two of the three players can reconstruct the state, while individual players obtain nothing. We characterize this (2,3) threshold quantum state sharing scheme in terms of fidelity, signal transfer, and reconstruction noise. We demonstrate a fidelity averaged over all reconstruction permutations of 0.73+/-0.04, a level achievable only using quantum resources.
The security of a secret sharing protocol is compromised if one or more dishonest participants can reconstruct the secret by deviating from the prescribed protocol, particularly when such malicious behavior remains undetected. Semi-Quantum Secret Sharing (SQSS) is a variant of secret sharing in which the participants possess only classical capabilities, such as preparing and measuring qubits in the computational (
Z) basis, while a quantum-capable third party assists the dealer in generating and distributing quantum shares of a classical secret. The limited quantum capabilities of the participants in SQSS protocols may introduce vulnerabilities to collusion attacks, enabling an assisting quantum third party, in collaboration with a dishonest classical participant, to jointly recover the secret even without detection. In this work, we propose a novel SQSS protocol that eliminates this vulnerability and achieves information-theoretic security against collusion attacks. We further prove that the proposed protocol is secure against a broad class of external and internal attacks. Finally, a comparative analysis demonstrates that our construction advances existing SQSS protocols by simultaneously optimizing qubit efficiency, involves a classical dealer, and resilience against DCNA attacks using basic Bell states.