Attribute-based encryption: Difference between revisions

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'''Attribute-based encryption''' is a typegeneralisation of [[public-key encryption]] in which theenables fine grained access control of encrypted data using [[Authorization | authorisation policies]]. The [[secret key]] of a user and the ciphertext are dependent upon attributes (e.g. their email address, the country in which they live, or the kind of subscription they have). In such a system, the decryption of a ciphertext is possible only if the set of attributes of the user key matches the attributes of the ciphertext.<ref>{{cite web |title=What is Attribute-Based Encryption |work=Cryptography Stack Exchange |url=https://crypto.stackexchange.com/a/17894 |date=2014 }}</ref>

A crucial security aspect of attribute-based encryption is collisioncollusion-resistance: An adversary that holds multiple keys should only be able to access data if at least one individual key grants access.

==Description==

Attribute-based encryption is provably<ref name="Herranz2017">{{cite journal | last1 = Herranz | first1 = Javier | title = Attribute-based encryption implies identity-based encryption | journal = IET Information Security | date = November 2017 | volume = 11 | issue = 6 | pages = 332–337 | issn = 1751-8709 | eissn = 1751-8717 | doi = 10.1049/iet-ifs.2016.0490 | pmid = | hdl = 2117/111526 | s2cid = 20290716 | url = | hdl-access = free }}</ref> a generalisation of [[identity-based encryption]].

==History==

The concept of attributeIdentity-based encryption was first proposed in 1984 by [[Adi Shamir]],<ref name="Shamir pp. 47–53">{{cite book | last=Shamir | first=Adi | title=Advances in Cryptology | chapter=Identity-Based Cryptosystems and Signature Schemes | series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science | publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg | publication-place=Berlin, Heidelberg | isbn=978-3-540-15658-1 | doi=10.1007/3-540-39568-7_5 | pages=47–53 | date=1984| volume=196 }}</ref> without a specific solution or proof. In 2004 [[Amit Sahai]] and [[Brent Waters]] <ref>Amit Sahai and Brent Waters, Fuzzy Identity-Based Encryption ''[httphttps://eprint.iacr.org/2004/086 Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2004/086]'' (2004)</ref> andpublished latera solution, improved in 2006 by Vipul Goyal, Omkant Pandey, [[Amit Sahai]] and Brent Waters.<ref name=":0">Vipul Goyal, Omkant Pandey, Amit Sahai and Brent Waters, Attribute-Based Encryption for Fine-Grained Access Control of Encrypted Data ''[https://eprint.iacr.org/2006/309.pdf ACM CCS (2006)]''</ref> Recently,[[Melissa Chase]] and severalother researchers have further proposed attribute-based encryption with multiple authorities who jointly generate users' private keys.<ref>[[Melissa Chase]], Multi-authority Attribute-Based Encryption ''[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-540-70936-7_28 TCC (2007)]''</ref><ref>[[Melissa Chase]] and Sherman S.M. Chow, Improving privacy and security in multi-authority attribute-based encryption ''[http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1653678 ACM CCS (2009)]''</ref><ref>Taeho Jung, Xiang-Yang Li, Zhiguo Wan, and Meng Wan, Privacy preserving cloud data access with multi-authorities ''[httphttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6567070&tag=1 IEEE INFOCOM (2013)]''</ref><ref>Taeho Jung, Xiang-Yang Li, Zhiguo Wan, and Meng Wan, Control Cloud Dhttps://gnunet.org/sites/default/files/CCS%2706%20-%20Attributed-based%20encryption%20for%20fine-grained%20access%20control%20of%20encrypted%20data.pdfata Access Privilege and Anonymity With Fully Anonymous Attribute-Based Encryption ''[httphttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6951492 Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (2015)]''</ref><ref>Allisso Lewko and Brent Waters, Decentralizing Attribute-Based Encryption ''[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-20465-4_31 EUROCRYPT (2011)]''</ref><ref>Sascha Muller, Stefan Katzenbeisser, and [[Claudia Eckert (computer scientist)|Claudia Eckert]], On multi-authority ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption ''[http://143.248.27.21/mathnet/thesis_file/14_B08-591.pdf Bull. Korean Math. Soc. 46 (2009)]''</ref>

== Types of attribute-based encryption schemes ==

There are mainly two types of attribute-based encryption schemes: Key-policy attribute-based encryption (KP-ABE)<ref name=":0" /> and ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE).<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bethencourt|first1=J.|last2=Sahai|first2=A.|last3=Waters|first3=B.|date=2007-05-01|title=Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption|journal=2007 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP '07) |chapter=Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption |date=2007-05-01|pages=321–334|doi=10.1109/SP.2007.11|isbn=978-0-7695-2848-9|citeseerx=10.1.1.69.3744|s2cid=6282684 }}</ref>

In KP-ABE, users' secret keys are generated based on an access tree that defines the privileges scope of the concerned user, and data are encrypted over a set of attributes. However, CP-ABE uses access trees to encrypt data and users' secret keys are generated over a set of attributes.

== Relationship to role-based encryption ==

The related concept of [[role-based encryption]]<ref name="SuryakantBhise R.N pp. 15–20">{{cite journal | last1=SuryakantBhise | first1=Avdhut | last2=R.N | first2=Phursule | title=A Review of Role based Encryption System for Secure Cloud Storage | journal=International Journal of Computer Applications | publisher=Foundation of Computer Science | volume=109 | issue=14 | date=2015-01-16 | issn=0975-8887 | doi=10.5120/19255-0986 | pages=15–20| bibcode=2015IJCA..109n..15S | doi-access=free }}</ref> refers exclusively to access keys having roles that can be validated against an authoritative store of roles. In this sense, Role-based encryption can be expressed by Attribute-based encryption and within that limited context the two terms can be used interchangeably. Role-based Encryption cannot express Attribute-based encryption.

==Usage==

Attribute-based encryption (ABE) can be used for log encryption.<ref>Vipul Goyal, Omkant Pandey, Amit Sahai and Brent Waters, Attribute-Based Encryption for Fine-Grained Access Control of Encrypted Data ''[httphttps://eprint.iacr.org/2006/309.pdf Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2006/309]'' (2006)</ref> Instead of encrypting each part of a log with the keys of all recipients, it is possible to encrypt the log only with attributes which match recipients' attributes. This primitive can also be used for [[broadcast encryption]] in order to decrease the number of keys used.<ref>David Lubicz and Thomas Sirvent, Attribute-Based Broadcast Encryption Scheme Made Efficient ''[httphttps://perso.univ-rennes1.fr/david.lubicz/articles/attribute.pdf First International Conference on Cryptology in Africa]'' (2008)</ref> Attribute-based encryption methods are also widely employed in vector-driven search engine interfaces.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bouabana-Tebibel |first1=T |title=Parallel search over encrypted data under attribute based encryption on the Cloud Computing |journal=Computers & Security |date=2015 |volume=54|pages=77–91 |doi=10.1016/j.cose.2015.04.007 }}</ref>

===Challenges===

Although the ABE concept is very powerful and a promising mechanism, ABE systems suffer mainly from two drawbacks: non-efficiencyinefficiency and non-existencethe lack of a straightforward attribute revocation mechanism.

Other main challenges are:

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A simple but constrained solution is to include a time attribute. This solution would require each message to be encrypted with a modified access tree {{samp|T0}}, which is constructed by augmenting the original access tree {{samp|T}} with an additional time attribute. The time attribute, {{samp|ζ}} represents the current ‘time period’. Formally, the new access structure {{samp|T0}} is as follows: {{samp|T0 = (T AND ζ)}}. For example, {{samp|ζ}} can be the ‘date’ attribute whose value changes once every day. It is assumed that each non-revoked user receives his fresh private keys corresponding to the ‘date’ attribute once each day directly from the mobile key server MKS (which is the central authority) or via the regional delegates. With a hierarchical access structure, the key delegation property of CP-ABE can be exploited to reduce the dependency on the central authority for issuing the new private keys to all users every time interval. There are significant trade-offs between the extra load incurred by the authority for generating and communicating the new keys to the users and the amount of time that can elapse before a revoked user can be effectively purged. This above solution has the following problems:

# Each user X needs to periodically receive from the central authority the fresh private key corresponding to the time attribute, otherwise X will not be able to decrypt any message.

# It is a lazy revocation technique. theThe revoked user is not purged from the system until the current time period expires.

# This scheme requires an implicit time synchronization (a loose time synchronization may be sufficient) among the authority and the users.

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==Further reading==

*{{Cite journal|last1=Attrapadung|first1=Nuttapong|last2=Herranz|first2=Javier|last3=Laguillaumie|first3=Fabien|last4=Libert|first4=Benoît|last5=de Panafieu|first5=Elie|last6=Ràfols|first6=Carla|date=March 2012|title=Attribute-based encryption schemes with constant-size ciphertexts|journal=Theoretical Computer Science|language=en|volume=422|pages=15–38|doi=10.1016/j.tcs.2011.12.004|doi-access=free|hdl=10230/42258|hdl-access=free}}

*Herranz, Javier; Laguillaumie, Fabien; Ràfols, Carla (2010), Nguyen, Phong Q.; Pointcheval, David (eds.), "[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-13013-7_2 Constant Size Ciphertexts in Threshold Attribute-Based Encryption]", ''Public Key Cryptography – PKC 2010'', Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 6056, pp.&nbsp;19–34, [[Doi (identifier)|doi]]:[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-13013-7_2 10.1007/978-3-642-13013-7_2], {{ISBN|978-3-642-13012-0}}, retrieved 2020-05-13

[[Category:Public-key cryptography]]

[[Category:Pairing-based cryptography]]