Title: TRO-CP-ABE: a secure and flexible layer with traceability and easy revocation in ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption

Authors: Archana Nikose; K. Srinivas

Addresses: Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Deemed to be University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India ' Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Deemed to be University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Abstract: Attribute-based encryption (ABE) is a very efficient way of authorising users to access confidential data in organisations without public-key validation from external trusted authorities or complex login processes. Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is an improvement over ABE in which access is granted to users based on their attributes if they satisfy the access policy of the ciphertext defined by the data owner. CP-ABE poses many challenges like tracing the malicious user, revoking the access of users, collusion attacks: where users may combine keys to gain access to unauthorised data, and key escrow: when authorities have complete access to protected data due to saved private keys. Our proposed solution is an added security layer on top of the underlying CP-ABE which solves the four security concerns mentioned above. The TRO-CP-ABE system also gives great flexibility to the system designer on the use of key generation algorithms and access structures as required.

Keywords: ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption; CP-ABE; traceable ABE; revocation; key escrow; collusion attack; security layer; attribute-based encryption; ABE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITST.2023.129585

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, 2023 Vol.13 No.2, pp.196 - 208

Received: 27 Apr 2022
Accepted: 11 Sep 2022

Published online: 14 Mar 2023 *

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