Abstract
Ma et al. [Int. J. Theor. Phys. (2021): 1328–1338] proposed a multi-party quantum key distribution (MQKD) protocol using Bell states, in which multiple participants can distribute a group key efficiently. However, this study indicates that Ma et al.’s protocol has two security loopholes. First, an attacker can obtain the pre-shared key Ks using an eavesdropping attack. Second, the attacker uses an intercept-and-resend attack to steal the group key shared among the participants without being detected. An improved MQKD protocol is proposed to overcome these loopholes.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their very valuable comments, which greatly enhanced the clarity of this paper. This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C. (Grant Nos. MOST 110-2221-E-039-004, MOST 110-2221-E-143-003, MOST 110-2221-E-259-001, MOST 110-2221-E-143-004, and MOST 110-2218-E-005-008-MBK), and China Medical University, Taiwan (Grant No. CMU109-S-01).
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Tsai, CW., Lin, J., Chiu, L. et al. Cryptanalysis and Improvement in Multi-Party Quantum Key Distribution Protocol with New Bell States Encoding Mode. Int J Theor Phys 60, 3599–3608 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-021-04927-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-021-04927-5