Towards a Cryptography Benchmark: A View on Attribute Based Encryption Schemes

Abstract

In many Internet-of-Things (IoT) scenarios - such as smart home, or intelligent traffic systems - groups of devices interact with each other. Such scenarios no longer require encryption for individual recipients but for groups of recipients, i.e., this is a shift towards 1-to-n and n-to-n encryption schemes. Developers must select the scheme that (1) offers the required functional encryption features, (2) has the non-functional requirements best fitting the specific use case, and (3) is the most performant in the specific group setting. In other research domains, benchmarks help to support researchers, but also practitioners, in the choice of the best technology for a specific use case. However, there is no benchmark for encryption schemes available that covers all different types of encryption schemes, like 1-to-n and n-to-n encryption. In this paper, we provide such a benchmark for the category of attribute-based encryption schemes (ABE), especially focusing on the workloads, measurement setup, metrics, requirements, and features for an attribute based 1-to-n encryption scheme benchmark. Additionally, we describe how to include n-to-n encryption schemes. Lastly, we apply the benchmark to compare attribute-based encryption schemes among and with n-to-n group encryption schemes. Our result indicate that (1) our benchmark is suitable for evaluating ABE schemes as 1-to-n and n-to-n ciphers, (2) there is no single scheme that performs best in all scenarios and (3) with ABE schemes extended to n-to-n encryption schemes, a combination of constant computation times and an efficient use of broadcast is possible, which is not the case with traditional n-to-n encryption schemes.