# Secret Sharing between $x$ parties

So for an unknown number of parties $$x$$, I make $$x-1$$ random $$n$$-bit strings represented by {$$r_1, r_2,...,r_{x-1}$$}. Where $$s$$ is the complete string split up between $$x$$ parties (yes?).

I then send each party one of the fragments $$s_i$$, so party 1 would get $$s_1$$, party 2 would get $$s_2$$ etc. all the way through to $$s_{x-1}$$. Along with these fragments. I then send $$r_1⊕...⊕r_{x-1}⊕s$$ to party $$x$$.

The message $$s$$ can then be reconstructed by XORing all the fragments together. Any singular $$x-1$$ party should not have enough information to reconstruct a message. But then what happens if there are only two parties? if $$x=2$$, then the message $$s$$ would be divided between $$x-1=1$$, which means that that singular party would acquire the entire $$n$$-bit string on their own, or am I over looking something that prevents this so that any $$x-1$$ party does infact not have enough information to reconstruct the message, even if it was only 1-bit ($$n=1$$) in length?

What about if 3 parties share two keys $$a,b$$? Assuming their fragments are $$f_j$$ for $$a$$ and $$g_j$$ for $$b$$ (that is these are $$r_j$$ fragments, and party 1 has $$g_1$$ and $$f_1$$, party 2 has $$g_2$$ and $$f_2$$ etc), could they manage to derive the secret if each party makes $$z_j=f_j⊕g_j$$, using the $$z_j$$ values of each?

• Why do you send the x-or part? – kelalaka Oct 22 '19 at 8:48
• Final party has the method – Anan Oct 22 '19 at 9:21
• In the last paragraph, "Assuming their fragments are $f_j$ for $a$ and $g_j$ for $y$" , should be $g_j$ for $b$? – Changyu Dong Oct 22 '19 at 9:24
• You really should use one notation for your shares. Right now, you have $r_i, s_i$ for the entire strings and then use $f$ and $g$ in the last paragraph.Also, you initially write about sharing a key in the title, and then all of a sudden you share a message. – tylo Oct 22 '19 at 11:25
• s is the message, r is a fragment of s, f and g are defined unique variants of r – Anan Oct 22 '19 at 11:35

So for an unknown number of parties $$x$$, I make $$x-1$$ random $$n$$-bit strings represented by {$$r_1, r_2,...,r_{x-1}$$}. Where $$s$$ is the complete string split up between $$x$$ parties (yes?).
I then send each party one of the fragments $$s_i$$, so party 1 would get $$s_1$$, party 2 would get $$s_2$$ etc. all the way through to $$s_{x-1}$$. Along with these fragments. I then send $$r_1⊕...⊕r_{x-1}⊕s$$ to party $$x$$.
That is not how it is typically done. One issue is that two parties (say, party 1 and party $$x$$) get partial information of the shared secret, that is, the part that was masked by $$r_1$$.
Instead, what we do is make $$x-1$$ random strings (each as long as the secret $$s$$). Then, we send party 1 the string $$r_1$$ (not $$s_1$$), party 2 would get $$r_2$$, etc. And then send $$r_1 \oplus r_2 \oplus ... \oplus r_{x-1} \oplus s$$ to party $$x$$.
This can be seen to yield no information about $$s$$ to any $$x-1$$ parties, and still makes $$s$$ recoverable to someone with all $$x$$ shares.