Cryptanalysis and improvement on authenticated semi-quantum direct communication protocol using Bell states (Q2240986)

This paper studies the information leakage problem associated with \textit{Y.-P. Luo} and \textit{T. Hwang}'s measure-resend ASQDC protocol [Quantum Inf. Process. 15, No. 2, 947--958 (2016; Zbl 1333.81122)]. It shows a way that an eavesdropper can obtain partial information using the proposed man-in-the middle attack. This paper also proposes an improvement but the authors point out that the problem still needs further evaluation to determine whether the proposed solution can indeed perform the secure communication between the participants in a semi-quantum environment without an authenticated classical channel. This paper is interesting in the sense that though QKD often claims to be absolutely secure, practically it is often not so, and often it is not clear how secure indeed they are.