Multiparty quantum private comparison with almost dishonest third parties for strangers

Abstract

This study explores a new security problem existing in various state-of-the-art quantum private comparison (QPC) protocols, where a malicious third-party (TP) announces fake comparison (or intermediate) results. In this case, the participants could eventually be led to a wrong direction and the QPC will become fraudulent. In order to resolve this problem, a new QPC protocol is proposed, where a second TP is introduced to monitor the first one. Once a TP announces a fake comparison (or intermediate) result, participants can detect the fraud immediately. Besides, due to the introduction of the second TP, the proposed protocol allows strangers to compare their secrets privately, whereas the state-of-the-art QPCs require the involved clients to know each other before running the protocol.