Title: Multiuser private queries over encrypted databases

Authors: Yanjiang Yang, Feng Bao, Xuhua Ding, Robert H. Deng

Addresses: Institute for Infocomm Research, 1 Fusionopolis Way, No. 21-01 Connexis, South Tower, Singapore 138632. ' Institute for Infocomm Research, 1 Fusionopolis Way, No. 21-01 Connexis, South Tower, Singapore 138632. ' School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University, Singapore. ' School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University, Singapore

Abstract: Searchable encryption schemes allow users to perform keyword-based searches on an encrypted database. Almost all existing such schemes only consider the scenario where a single user acts as both the data owner and the querier. However, most databases in practice do not just serve one user; instead, they support search and write operations by multiple users. In this paper, we systematically study searchable encryption in a practical multiuser setting. Our results include a set of security notions for multiuser searchable encryption as well as a construction which is provably secure under the newly introduced security notions. We also discuss how to improve query efficiency.

Keywords: applied cryptography; privacy; encrypted databases; searchable encryption; multiuser private queries; keyword searches; multiple users; query efficiency; security.

DOI: 10.1504/IJACT.2009.028029

International Journal of Applied Cryptography, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.309 - 319

Published online: 31 Aug 2009 *

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