Cryptanalysis and improvement of the novel semi-quantum secret sharing scheme based on Bell states

Abstract

A recent paper proposed a semi-quantum secret sharing (SQSS) scheme based on Bell states [A. Yin et al., Mod. Phys. Lett. B. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217984917501500 ]. This protocol was presumed that only the sender has the quantum power and all participants perform classical operations. However, we find this protocol is not that secure as it is expected. We can utilize the intercept-resend method to attack this scheme. Then, we give an improvement strategy based on semi-quantum key distribution, which ensures that the new scheme resists the attack we have proposed.