{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]],"date-time":"2025-11-01T13:50:11Z","timestamp":1762005011479,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,4]],"date-time":"2018-04-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1522800000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Symmetry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Secret sharing is an information security technique where a dealer divides a secret into a collection of shares and distributes these to members of a group. The secret will only be revealed when a predefined number of group members cooperate to recover the secret. The purpose of this study is to investigate a method of distributing shares by embedding them into cover Quick Response (QR) codes in a secure manner using cryptographic keys. The advantage of this approach is that the shares can be disseminated over public channels, as anyone who scans the QR codes will only obtain public information. Only authorized individuals who are in possession of the required keys will be able to recover the shares. This also means that when group members cooperate to recover a secret, the group can determine the presence of an illegitimate participant if the person does not produce a valid share. This study proposes a protocol for accomplishing this and discusses the underlying security of the protocol.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/sym10040095","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,4]],"date-time":"2018-04-04T06:45:37Z","timestamp":1522824337000},"page":"95","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":21,"title":["Cooperative Secret Sharing Using QR Codes and Symmetric Keys"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3348-7014","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yang-Wai","family":"Chow","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Cybersecurity and Cryptology, School of Computing and Information Technology, University ofWollongong,Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1562-5105","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Willy","family":"Susilo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Cybersecurity and Cryptology, School of Computing and Information Technology, University ofWollongong,Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}]},{"given":"Joseph","family":"Tonien","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Cybersecurity and Cryptology, School of Computing and Information Technology, University ofWollongong,Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6160-5343","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elena","family":"Vlahu-Gjorgievska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre of Persuasive Technology and Society, School of Computing and Information Technology, University ofWollongong,Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}]},{"given":"Guomin","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Cybersecurity and Cryptology, School of Computing and Information Technology, University ofWollongong,Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"65","article-title":"Cooperative Learning in Information Security Education: Teaching Secret Sharing Concepts","volume":"Volume 10451","author":"Luo","year":"2017","journal-title":"Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering (CDVE), Mallorca, Spain, 17\u201320 September 2017"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"11","article-title":"Secret-Sharing Schemes: A Survey","volume":"Volume 6639","author":"Beimel","year":"2011","journal-title":"Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Proceedings of the Third International Workshop Coding and Cryptology (IWCC), Qingdao, China, 30 May\u20133 June 2011"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Balfanz, D., Durfee, G., Shankar, N., Smetters, D.K., Staddon, J., and Wong, H. 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