Challenging the adversary model in secret sharing schemes

Secret sharing schemes are cryptographic primitives for distributing shares of a secret amongst a set of entities in such a way that only certain coalitions can reconstruct the secret from their shares. Secret sharing schemes are highly versatile primitives that are particularly useful in applications where there is no single point of trust. Traditionally, secret sharing schemes are studied in an environment where there is a trusted dealer who initiates the scheme, passive adversaries who do not manipulate shares, and participants who either co-operate or do not co-operate in a reconstruction attempt. These assumptions are reasonable in some situations, but do not necessarily map comfortably onto many application environments. In this paper we review work on secret sharing schemes where one or more of these assumptions is challenged.