A simultaneous members enrollment and revocation protocol for secret sharing schemes

Abstract

Secret sharing schemes have very wide applications in modern electronic society. In a secret sharing scheme, the shared secret is divided into multiple shares and only more than certain number of shares can reconstruct the secret. However, sometimes members may leave or join a secret sharing system in some variable circumstances. Therefore, constructing dynamic secret sharing is an important task. In this paper, we discuss a protocol about enrolling and revoking members simultaneously in a secret sharing scheme. Compared with previous protocols, our protocol can accomplish a new member's enrollment and an old member's revocation in fewer rounds. This protocol is especially useful for the circumstances where members join and leave secret sharing system frequently such as ad hoc networks. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.