With the rapid progress of quantum cryptography, secret sharing has been developed in the quantum setting for achieving a high level of security, which is known as quantum secret sharing (QSS). The first QSS scheme was proposed by Hillery et al. in 1999 [Phys. Rev. A, Vol. 59, p.1829 (1999)] based on entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. However, only 50% of the entangled quantum states are effective for eavesdropping detection and secret splitting in the original scheme. In this paper, we introduce a possible method, called measurement-delay strategy, to improve the qubit efficiency of the GHZ-based QSS scheme. By using this method, the qubit efficiency of the improved QSS scheme can reach 100% for both security detection and secret distribution. The improved QSS scheme can be implemented experimentally based on current technologies.
With the rapid progress of quantum cryptography, secret sharing has been developed in the quantum setting for achieving a high level of security, which is known as quantum secret sharing (QSS). The first QSS scheme was proposed by Hillery et al. in 1999 [Phys. Rev. A, Vol. 59, p.1829 (1999)] based on entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. However, only 50% of the entangled quantum states are effective for eavesdropping detection and secret splitting in the original scheme. In this paper, we introduce a possible method, called measurement-delay strategy, to improve the qubit efficiency of the GHZ-based QSS scheme. By using this method, the qubit efficiency of the improved QSS scheme can reach 100% for both security detection and secret distribution. The improved QSS scheme can be implemented experimentally based on current technologies.
With the rapid progress of quantum cryptography, secret sharing has been developed in the quantum setting for achieving a high level of security, which is known as quantum secret sharing (QSS). The first QSS scheme was proposed by Hillery et al. in 1999 [Phys. Rev. A, Vol. 59, p.1829 (1999)] based on entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states. However, only 50% of the entangled quantum states are effective for eavesdropping detection and secret splitting in the original scheme. In this paper, we introduce a possible method, called measurement-delay strategy, to improve the qubit efficiency of the GHZ-based QSS scheme. By using this method, the qubit efficiency of the improved QSS scheme can reach 100% for both security detection and secret distribution. The improved QSS scheme can be implemented experimentally based on current technologies.
Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is a crucial quantum cryptographic method that provides unconditional secu-rity through the principles of quantum mechanics and enables practical applications in information security and distributed computing. Many QSS protocols have been proposed based on various quantum properties and operations. In this study, we propose a new and efficient multiparty quantum secret sharing protocol that utilizes entanglement swapping with the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state and introduces a novel structure to efficiently and securely distribute and recover secrets. Due to entanglement swapping, participants can entangle systems without directly interacting with each other, enhancing practical usage. Through GHZ entanglement swapping, initial particle states cannot be directly inferred. The proposed QSS protocol leverages this property to encode information among participants. To decode the secret, participants only require measuring particles on a GHZ basis to get the corresponding information without performing operations. Through security analysis, it is shown that any eavesdropper or dishonest participant will be detected. Efficiency analysis indicates that the proposed protocol substantially reduces costs and significantly enhances efficiency. As the number of participants increases, the resource consumption of the proposed protocol becomes much lower than that of other QSS protocols. In summary, the proposed protocol efficiently achieves unconditional security in QSS, ensuring the secure transmission and sharing of quantum information.
In wireless quantum networks, nodes communicate by means of pre-distribution for entangled pairs and relay path establishment for quantum teleportation. However, simple point-to-point communication seriously restricts the efficiency of quantum communication. Inspired by sharing idea of quantum secret sharing (QSS), which is based on three collaborative nodes with pre-shared GHZ (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger) states, we propose a quantum secret broadcast scheme to improve network performance. In a cluster net-work cored on three parties of QSS, three cluster heads with pre-shared GHZ states are senders, while cluster members are receivers. One cluster head encodes secret messages on auxiliary particles by performing certain operations on them with GHZ particles, then three cluster heads measure their own par-ticles and broadcast measurement results honestly. Based on the specific correlation of measurement results and secret messages, all receivers can re-cover the secret messages. Furthermore, to prevent eavesdropping, cluster heads can update an encoding key periodically. Analysis shows the proposed scheme is more efficient than previous schemes in wireless quantum net-works, especially when the number of receivers is larger. Besides, in the proposed scheme, attacks on quantum channel based on GHZ state can be detected, and eavesdroppers cannot recover messages correctly for lack of suitable decoding key.
Abstract At present, most quantum secret sharing (QSS) protocols are more or less designed with the incorporation of classical secret sharing schemes. With the increasing maturity of quantum technology, QSS protocols based on pure quantum mechanics are becoming more important. Classical secret sharing schemes cannot achieve absolute security, and their involvement can compromise the security of QSS protocols. This paper proposes a QSS scheme based on Greenberger–Horn–Zeilinger (GHZ) basis measurement and quantum entanglement exchange. In this protocol, the secret sender stores the secret information using Pauli operations. Participants obtain their shares by measuring the product state sequentially. Finally, participants complete the secret reconstruction through quantum entanglement exchange and other related quantum operations. In addition, the particles held by participants in the protocol do not contain any secret information. Each participant’s particles are in a state of maximum entanglement, and no participant can deduce the particle information of other participants through their own particles. At the same time, the protocol is based on pure quantum mechanics and does not involve classical schemes, which avoids the problem of reduced security of the protocol. Security analysis indicates that the protocol is not vulnerable to retransmission interception and collusion attacks. Moreover, it is capable of detecting and terminating the protocol promptly when facing with attacks from dishonest participants.
Quantum secret sharing (QSS), as a quantum extension of classical secret sharing, uses the basic principles of quantum mechanics to share information safely among multiple parties, providing a new paradigm for information security. As a key foundation for secure multiparty quantum communication and distributed quantum computing, QSS has attracted considerable attention since its emergence. Currently, research in this field includes both classical and quantum scenarios, and continuous progress has been made in both theoretical and experimental aspects. This paper first reviews the current development of QSS for classical information. In this regard, significant and parallel progress has been made in both discrete-variable QSS and continuous-variable QSS. The QSS protocols for sharing classical information, from entangled states to single photons and then to coherent light, have been continuously optimized to better utilize available resources and achieve more efficient implementation under current technological conditions. Meanwhile, round-robin, measurement-device-independent, and other protocols have been steadily improving the security of QSS. Next, one will focus on QSS scheme for quantum secrets, which begins with the symmetry of access structures and introduces basic (k, n) threshold protocols, dynamic schemes that support adaptive agent groups, and symmetric quantum information splitting through entanglement. It further introduces hierarchical quantum secret sharing schemes for asymmetric splitting of quantum information. Considering practical laboratory conditions of quantum states as resources, an overall discussion is conducted on quantum secret sharing with graph states. Afterwards, the design of a continuous-variable scheme for quantum secret sharing is outlined, and entanglement state sharing and quantum teleportation between multiple senders and receivers are introduced. Finally, this review discusses and outlines the future development directions of QSS, thereby inspiring readers to further study and explore the relevant subjects.
Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is a typical multipartite cryptographic primitive, which is an important part of quantum communication network. Existing QSS protocols generally require basis selection and matching, which would increase the quantum resource consumption and classical communication round, and also face weak random security vulnerabilities. We propose an efficient hyperentanglement-based QSS protocol without the basis selection, in which the dealer and partners share a polarization-momentum hyperentangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state and encode keys in the polarization degree of freedom (DOF). The dealer decodes the transmitted keys relying on the nonlocal hyperentanglement-assisted polarization GHZ state analysis. Our QSS protocol is unconditionally secure in theory. We develop simulation method to estimate its performance in practical environment. Compared with the QSS based on the GHZ state, our protocol has several advantages. First, it does not require basis selection and can completely distinguish eight polarization GHZ states, which can improve the utilization rate of entanglement resources to 100% and increase the key generation rate by an order of magnitude. Second, it only requires one round of classical communication, and thus can reduce key generation time by 69.4%. Third, it can eliminate the weak random security vulnerabilities associated with the basis selection. Finally, our protocol only uses linear optical elements, which makes it practically feasible. Our QSS protocol has potential application in future quantum communication network.