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Cryptanalysis and improvement of a controlled quantum secure direct communication with authentication protocol based on five-particle cluster state

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Abstract

Information security and identity authentication are both critical in communication. Authentication allows the receiver to receive (quantum) information and confirm the sender’s identity. In 2019, Zheng and Long designed an improved version of Zhong et al. controlled quantum secure direct communication with authentication (CQSDCA) protocol, which uses the five-particle cluster state and an exclusive-or (XOR) operation. This protocol ensures data transfer security by including authentication and control phases. However, it was found in this study that the improved CQSDCA protocol has two weaknesses: (1) an external attacker may impersonate the sender, and (2) an external attacker could modify the messages sent by the sender. To solve these problems, we designed a protocol that uses part of a pre-shared key to determine particle sequence ordering and utilizes the computation of hash functions for identity authentication. These improvements prevent modification and impersonation attacks by an external attacker, thus improving the security of the CQSDCA protocol.

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Acknowledgements

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 National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan, R.O.C. (Grant Nos. NSTC 111-2221-E-039-014, NSTC 111-2221-E-005-048, NSTC 111-2634-F-005-001, NSTC 111-2218-E-005-007-MBK, NSTC 111-2221-E-143 -006 -MY2, and NSTC 111-2221-E-025-010) and China Medical University, Taiwan (Grant No. CMU111-S-28).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Master Program for Digital Health Innovation, College of Humanities and Sciences, China Medical University, No. 100, Sec. 1, Jingmao Rd., Beitun Dist., Taichung, 406040, Taiwan

    Chun-Wei Yang & Kai-Lin Wang

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, No. 145, Xingda Rd., South District, Taichung, 40227, Taiwan

    Jason Lin

  3. Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, No.129, Sec. 3, Sanmin Rd., North Dist., Taichung, 40401, Taiwan

    Chia-Wei Tsai

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  1. Chun-Wei Yang
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Correspondence to Chia-Wei Tsai.

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Yang, CW., Lin, J., Wang, KL. et al. Cryptanalysis and improvement of a controlled quantum secure direct communication with authentication protocol based on five-particle cluster state. Quantum Inf Process 22, 196 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-023-03956-9

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