Abstract Quantum secret sharing (QSS) has significant potential to improve secure communications. However, conventional QSS protocols, typically based on (n, n) or (t, n) threshold structures, require participants to possess symmetric authority, which is often impractical. To address scenarios with participants holding asymmetric privileges, we propose an innovative QSS scheme that realizes a hypergraph structure. This enables secret recovery only for authorized sets with the appropriate privileges. In detail, a specialized hypergraph structure is investigated to construct d-dimensional multipartite entangled states. Using these states, we develop an authenticated QSS protocol that enables secret recovery by authorized sets. Security analysis confirms the protocol’s resilience against common attacks, including intercept-resend, entangle-measure, dishonest participant and Trojan horse attacks. We further characterize the distinct impacts of dit-flip, phase-flip, dit-phase-flip, and depolarizing noise channels on quantum state transmission within the protocol. This characterization demonstrates that dynamically adapting error probability threshold according to prevailing noise conditions is essential to maintain security. Compared with existing protocols, our scheme improves quantum efficiency and reduces the number of unitary operations, which enhances its experimental feasibility.
Abstract Quantum secret sharing (QSS) has significant potential to improve secure communications. However, conventional QSS protocols, typically based on (n, n) or (t, n) threshold structures, require participants to possess symmetric authority, which is often impractical. To address scenarios with participants holding asymmetric privileges, we propose an innovative QSS scheme that realizes a hypergraph structure. This enables secret recovery only for authorized sets with the appropriate privileges. In detail, a specialized hypergraph structure is investigated to construct d-dimensional multipartite entangled states. Using these states, we develop an authenticated QSS protocol that enables secret recovery by authorized sets. Security analysis confirms the protocol’s resilience against common attacks, including intercept-resend, entangle-measure, dishonest participant and Trojan horse attacks. We further characterize the distinct impacts of dit-flip, phase-flip, dit-phase-flip, and depolarizing noise channels on quantum state transmission within the protocol. This characterization demonstrates that dynamically adapting error probability threshold according to prevailing noise conditions is essential to maintain security. Compared with existing protocols, our scheme improves quantum efficiency and reduces the number of unitary operations, which enhances its experimental feasibility.
In this paper, drawing upon quantum state masking theory, we first propose a method that utilizes d-dimensional orthogonal arrays to encode quantum states into a multi-party quantum system. Building upon this foundation, we then design a quantum secret sharing scheme whose security is rooted in the principles of quantum information masking. This scheme is designed based on the hyperstar structure to define the access structure. Additionally, the protocol enables the transmission of arbitrary d-dimensional quantum states through quantum channels constructed using orthogonal arrays, ensuring that only participants within the access structure can recover the secret. We have thoroughly analyzed the security of this scheme against major quantum attacks, including intercept-resend attacks, entangle-measure attacks, and dishonest participant attack. In conclusion, our analysis examines the impact of four common types of noise on this protocol, confirming its immunity to dit-flip noise. Furthermore, we present a comparative analysis of the proposed scheme against existing quantum secret sharing protocols, highlighting its respective advantages.
Abstract Quantum secret sharing, a pivotal research domain within quantum cryptography, has significant applications across diverse fields such as information security and distributed quantum computing. This paper proposes a d-dimensional hierarchical quantum multi-secret sharing scheme with a general access structure. In the proposed scheme, the distributor constructs a special entangled state by leveraging the secret values at each level and a monotone span program. During the secret reconstruction phase, participants only need to measure the particles in their possession, and authorized participants at each level can recover multiple secrets shared at that level. Additionally, each participant can independently compute and obtain multiple lower-level secrets but cannot access any higher-level secret information. Compared to existing hierarchical quantum secret sharing schemes, the proposed scheme is better suited for specific application scenarios with unique requirements. Furthermore, security analysis demonstrates that the scheme can resist various attacks, such as measurement attacks, intercept-resend attacks, entanglement-measurement attacks, Trojan horse attacks, and collusion attacks.
In this paper, a pair of quantum states are constructed based on an orthogonal array and further generalized to multi-body quantum systems. Subsequently, a novel physical process is designed, which is aimed at effectively masking quantum states within multipartite quantum systems. According to this masker, a new authenticable quantum secret sharing scheme is proposed, which can realize a class of special access structures. In the distribution phase, an unknown quantum state is shared safely among multiple participants, and this secret quantum state is embedded into a multi-particle entangled state using the masking approach. In the reconstruction phase, a series of precisely designed measurements and corresponding unitary operations are performed by the participants in the authorized set to restore the original information quantum state. To ensure the security of the scheme, the security analysis of five major types of quantum attacks is conducted. Finally, when compared with other quantum secret sharing schemes based on entangled states, the proposed scheme is found to be not only more flexible but also easier to implement based on existing quantum computing cloud platforms.
Quantum secret sharing (QSS) is an important branch of quantum cryptography. Identity authentication is a significant means to achieve information protection, which can effectively confirm the identity information of both communication parties. Due to the importance of information security, more and more communications require identity authentication. We propose a d-level (t,n) threshold QSS scheme in which both sides of the communication use mutually unbiased bases for mutual identity authentication. In the secret recovery phase, the sharing of secrets that only the participant holds will not be disclosed or transmitted. Therefore, external eavesdroppers will not get any information about secrets at this phase. This protocol is more secure, effective, and practical. Security analysis shows that this scheme can effectively resist intercept–resend attacks, entangle–measure attacks, collusion attacks, and forgery attacks.
Abstract In this paper, we introduce an authenticable quantum secret sharing protocol by utilizing unitary diagonal operator and quantum SUM gate. Here, dealer distributes quantum and classical information simultaneously to participants. The cheat-detection mechanism is designed to identify and expose any malicious actions by participants. During this process, each subsequent participant can detect and recognize deceptive behaviour from dishonest members. To ensure that only legitimate participants are involved in the protocol, we introduce an identity authentication mechanism, where the dealer and each participant share a pair of secret PIN sequences. The implementation of the proposed scheme on the IBM quantum platform (restricted to d = 2) demonstrates its operational correctness and feasibility. Noise-aware simulations under realistic NISQ conditions show that, although performance degrades with increasing noise, the correct outcome remains dominant, indicating robust behaviour in the presence of decoherence, gate errors, and measurement imperfections. Additionally, a complementary analysis is performed under different noise environments, including dit-flip noise, d-phase-flip noise, and depolarizing noise. The obtained results indicate that the efficiency of the proposed protocol decreases with increasing channel noise parameter, with distinct performance variations observed across all the noise models. Furthermore, this work takes into account the situation in which at least t out of the n participants can use the Lagrange interpolation to recover the secret classical and quantum information. The security analysis demonstrates that the proposed protocol is resilient to intercept-resend, collusion, entangle-measure, forgery and denial attacks.
Abstract Quantum secret sharing (QSS) plays a crucial role in quantum cryptography as a privacy preserving scheme. Designing an efficient QSS protocol requires addressing three key challenges: 1) dynamic agent membership (handling agents joining or leaving during execution), 2) adversarial resilience (ensuring robustness against dishonest agents), and 3) practical optimization (improving computational and communication efficiency while minimizing implementation cost). In this paper, a verifiable dynamic threshold QSS (VDQSS) protocol with authentication capability is proposed. The protocol employs single particles for both authentication and share distribution, combining homogeneous linear recursion (HLR) with mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) to reconstruct multiple secrets. This approach significantly enhances security while reducing protocol complexity. The correctness and practicality of the protocol are validated through experimental simulations. Analytical results demonstrate its robustness against common attacks, providing reliable security guarantees for quantum communications. Compared to existing QSS protocols, the protocol offers enhanced simplicity and practical applicability.