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arXiv:quant-ph/0506194 · Physical Review A

Improving the security of multiparty quantum secret sharing against Trojan horse attack

Fu‐Guo Deng, Xihan Li, Hong-Yu Zhou, Zhanjun Zhang

Published Oct 18, 2005• 578 citations
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Abstract

We analyzed the security of the multiparty quantum secret sharing (MQSS) protocol recently proposed by Zhang, Li, and Man [Phys. Rev. A 71, 044301 (2005)] and found that this protocol is secure for any other eavesdropper except for the agent Bob who prepares the quantum signals as he can attack the quantum communication with a Trojan horse. That is, Bob replaces the single-photon signal with a multiphoton one and the other agent Charlie cannot find this cheating as she does not measure the photons before they run back from the boss Alice, which reveals that this MQSS protocol is not secure for Bob. Finally, we present a possible improvement of the MQSS protocol security with two single-photon measurements and four unitary operations.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.72.044302

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Recently, Gao et al.'s [ Commun. Theor. Phys. 52 (2009) 421 ] multiparty quantum secret sharing (MQSS) protocol with two-photon three-dimensional Bell states was enhanced by Hwang et al. [ Commun. Theor. Phys. 56 (2011) 79 ]. The improved protocol removes some unnecessary unitary operations, devices, and transmissions by the technique of decoy single photons and careful modification. However, in this paper, we investigate the security of the improved protocol and find it is insecure. The eavesdropper can steal all Alice's secret information. Furthermore, a feasible modification to remedy the security loophole is put forward. Our improved protocol provides a basic method to modify a kind of MQSS protocols which cannot resist the collusion attack.
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