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Collusion Attack and Counterattack on the Quantum Key Agreement Via Non-maximally Entangled Cluster States

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Abstract

Recently, Li et al. (Int J Theor Phys: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-020-04588-w, 2020) proposed a multiparty quantum key agreement protocol via non-maximally entangled cluster states. They claimed that the proposed protocol can help all the involved participants have equal influence on the final shared key. However, this study points out a loophole that makes Li et al.’s protocol suffer from a collusion attack, i.e. several dishonest participants can conspire to manipulate the final shared key without being detected by others. To avoid this loophole, an improvement is proposed here.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China, Taiwan for partially supporting this research in finance under the Contract No. MOST 109-2221-E-006-168-; No. MOST 108-2221-E-006-107-.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Rd, Tainan City, 70101, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Jun Gu & Tzonelih Hwang

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  1. Jun Gu
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  2. Tzonelih Hwang
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Correspondence to Tzonelih Hwang.

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Gu, J., Hwang, T. Collusion Attack and Counterattack on the Quantum Key Agreement Via Non-maximally Entangled Cluster States. Int J Theor Phys 60, 331–337 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-020-04695-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-020-04695-8

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