Efficient and accountable anti-leakage attribute-based encryption scheme for cloud storage.

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Cryptography
• Information Security

Background:

• Attribute-based encryption (ABE) enables fine-grained access control for secure cloud data sharing.
• Existing ABE schemes face computational challenges in resource-constrained environments (IoT, edge computing).
• Accountability for illegal key disclosure, passive leakage, and potential key forgery by the authorization center are critical concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an efficient, accountable, and leakage-resistant ABE scheme.
• To address the computational burden on resource-constrained devices.
• To ensure accountability for key misuse and enhance overall data security.

Main Methods:

• Implemented online/offline encryption mechanisms for efficiency.
• Utilized cloud server-assisted decryption to reduce device load.
• Incorporated mechanisms for user and authorization center accountability, including key revocation and timely updates.
• Provided security and accountability proofs under standard models.

Main Results:

• The proposed scheme significantly alleviates computational load on resource-constrained devices.
• It effectively supports accountability for both users and the authorization center.
• The scheme handles passive key leakage through timely updates and revocation.
• Security and accountability are formally proven, demonstrating scheme validity.
• Experimental results confirm enhanced encryption/decryption efficiency with minimal storage overhead for accountability.

Conclusions:

• The developed ABE scheme offers an efficient and secure solution for data sharing in cloud environments, particularly for IoT and edge computing.
• It successfully addresses critical challenges of computational overhead, key leakage, and accountability.
• The scheme provides a robust framework for secure and auditable data access control.