Abstract
A multiparty controlled bidirectional quantum secure direct communication and authentication protocol is proposed based on EPR pair and entanglement swapping. The legitimate identities of communicating parties are encoded to Bell states which act as a detection sequence. Secret messages are transmitted by using the classical XOR operation, which serves as a one-time-pad. No photon with secret information transmits in the quantum channel. Compared with the protocols proposed by Wang et al. [Acta Phys. Sin. 56 (2007) 673; Opt. Commun. 266 (2006) 732], the protocol in this study implements bidirectional communication and authentication, which defends most attacks including the 'man-in-the-middle' attack efficiently.