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Entropy

An Efficient and Secure Semi-Quantum Secret Sharing Scheme Based on W State Sharing of Specific Bits

Kai Xing, Rongbo Lu, Sihai Liu, Lu Lan

Published Oct 26, 2025• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

This paper presents a semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) protocol based on three-particle W states, designed for efficient and secure secret sharing in quantum-resource-constrained scenarios. In the protocol, a fully quantum-capable sender encodes binary secrets using W, while receivers with limited quantum capabilities reconstruct the secret through collaborative Z basis measurements and classical communication, ensuring no single participant can obtain the complete information independently. The protocol employs a four-state decoy photon technique ({|0⟩,|1⟩,|+⟩,|−⟩}) and position randomization, combined with photon number splitting (PNS) and wavelength filtering (WF) technologies, to resist intercept–resend, entanglement–measurement, and double controlled-NOT(CNOT) attacks. Theoretical analysis shows that the detection probability of intercept–resend attacks increases exponentially with the number of decoy photons (approaching 1). For entanglement–measurement attacks, any illegal operation by an attacker introduces detectable quantum state disturbances. Double CNOT attacks are rendered ineffective by the untraceability of particle positions and mixed-basis strategies. Leveraging the robust entanglement of W states, the protocol proves that the mutual information between secret bits and single-participant measurement results is strictly zero, ensuring lossless reconstruction only through authorized collaboration.

DOI
10.3390/e27111107

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This paper presents a semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) protocol based on three-particle W states, designed for efficient and secure secret sharing in quantum-resource-constrained scenarios. In the protocol, a fully quantum-capable sender encodes binary secrets using W, while receivers with limited quantum capabilities reconstruct the secret through collaborative Z basis measurements and classical communication, ensuring no single participant can obtain the complete information independently. The protocol employs a four-state decoy photon technique ({|0⟩,|1⟩,|+⟩,|−⟩}) and position randomization, combined with photon number splitting (PNS) and wavelength filtering (WF) technologies, to resist intercept–resend, entanglement–measurement, and double controlled-NOT(CNOT) attacks. Theoretical analysis shows that the detection probability of intercept–resend attacks increases exponentially with the number of decoy photons (approaching 1). For entanglement–measurement attacks, any illegal operation by an attacker introduces detectable quantum state disturbances. Double CNOT attacks are rendered ineffective by the untraceability of particle positions and mixed-basis strategies. Leveraging the robust entanglement of W states, the protocol proves that the mutual information between secret bits and single-participant measurement results is strictly zero, ensuring lossless reconstruction only through authorized collaboration.
This study proposes a multiparty single-photon semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) protocol to simultaneously improve quantum bit (qubit) efficiency and practical feasibility. Existing quantum secret sharing protocols typically assume that all participants possess full quantum capabilities, which limits their deployment in real-world environments. To address this issue, the proposed protocol was designed using a semi-quantum model, allowing N agents with limited quantum capabilities to participate in the secret-sharing process. In terms of efficiency, the proposed protocol employs single photons as quantum resources and is analyzed under a unified definition of qubit efficiency. The results show that the qubit efficiency of the proposed protocol reaches 12N\frac{1}{2N}2N1​ , which is comparable to the best recent quantum secret sharing protocols and outperforms most existing SQSS methods. Unlike certain protocols in which qubit efficiency decreases exponentially with the number of participants, the quantum resource consumption of the proposed protocol increases linearly with the number of agents. Consequently, its qubit efficiency decreases proportionally to 1N\frac{1}{N}N1​ , rather than exponentially, providing better scalability as the number of agents increases. In terms of security, the protocol is analyzed against several attack models, including intercept-resend, entangle-and-measure, collective, and collusion attacks. The analysis shows that an adversary cannot obtain useful information without detection under these attacks, demonstrating the robustness of the proposed protocol.
Semi-quantum cryptography communication stipulates that the quantum user has complete quantum capabilities, and the classical user has limited quantum capabilities, only being able to perform the following operations: (1) measuring and preparing qubits with a Z basis and (2) returning qubits without any processing. Secret sharing requires participants to work together to obtain complete secret information, which ensures the security of the secret information. In the semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) protocol, the quantum user Alice divides the secret information into two parts and gives them to two classical participants. Only when they cooperate can they obtain Alice's original secret information. The quantum states with multiple degrees of freedom (DoFs) are defined as hyper-entangled states. Based on the hyper-entangled single-photon states, an efficient SQSS protocol is proposed. The security analysis proves that the protocol can effectively resist well-known attacks. Compared with the existing protocols, this protocol uses hyper-entangled states to expand the channel capacity. The transmission efficiency is 100% higher than that of single-degree-of-freedom (DoF) single-photon states, providing an innovative scheme for the design of the SQSS protocol in quantum communication networks. This research also provides a theoretical basis for the practical application of semi-quantum cryptography communication.
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 (ZZZ) 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.
Abstract Quantum secret sharing (QSS) can address the increasing threat of computing power. While semi-QSS protocols alleviate participants’ reliance on quantum devices, ensuring security and lowering the participation difficulty. In this paper, we propose a semi-QSS protocol based on four quantum entangled states within a four-dimensional quantum system. It generates a four-dimensional four-quantum entangled state through a dealer, requiring full quantum capability for the dealer and only partial quantum capability for the participants. Participants perform random operations on the received qubits, and eavesdropping detection is based on these random operations. Then the dealer can choose the correct measurement basis based on the receiver’s specific operations. The security and quantum efficiency of protocol depend on the ratio of information to decoy particles inserted by the dealer. Furthermore, the security analysis shows that the protocol is resistant to common quantum attacks.
Recently, Younes et al. proposed an efficient multi-party semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) scheme that generalizes Tian et al.'s three-party protocol \cite{Tian2021} to accommodate multiple participants. This scheme retains the original advantages, such as high qubit efficiency and allowing the secret dealer, Alice, to control the message content. However, He et al. \cite{He2024} identified a vulnerability in Tian et al.'s protocol to the double CNOT attack (DCNA), which also affects the generalized scheme. In response, He et al. proposed an improved protocol to address this issue. Despite these improvements, their protocol is limited to two participants and remains a primarily two-way communication scheme, which does not fully prevent the Trojan horse attack without expensive quantum devices such as photon number splitters (PNS) and wavelength filters (WF). To address these issues, this paper develops a novel multi-party SQSS scheme using the quantum property between Bell states and the Hadamard operation to detect eavesdroppers. This new scheme is secure against the DCNA, intercept-resend attack, and collective attack. It employs a fully one-way communication scheme, entirely preventing the Trojan horse attack without costly quantum devices, aligning with the semi-quantum environment's original intent. This new protocol also offers better qubit efficiency and allows Alice to share specific secrets.
Abstract Semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) is an important branch of semi-quantum cryptography, and differs from quantum secret sharing (QSS) in that not all parties are required to possess quantum capabilities. All previous SQSS protocols have three common features: (i) they adopt product states or entangled states as initial quantum resource; (ii) the particles prepared by quantum party are transmitted in a tree-type way; and (iii) they require the classical parties to possess the measurement capability. In this paper, two circular SQSS protocols with single particles are suggested, where the first one requires the classical parties to possess the measurement capability while the second one does not have this requirement. Compared with the previous SQSS protocols, the proposed SQSS protocols have some distinct features: (i) they adopt single particles rather than product states or entangled states as initial quantum resource; (ii) the particles prepared by quantum party are transmitted in a circular way; and (iii) the second protocol releases the classical parties from the measurement capability. The proposed SQSS protocols are robust against some famous attacks from an eavesdropper, such as the measure-resend attack, the intercept-resend attack and the entangle-measure attack, and are feasible with present quantum technologies in reality .