An Anonymous Attribute-based Access Control System Supporting Access Structure Update

Abstract

It is quite common nowadays for clients to outsource their personal data to a cloud service provider. However, it causes some new challenges in the area of data confidentiality and access control. Attribute-based encryption is a promising solution for providing confidentiality and fine-grained access control in a cloud-based cryptographic system. Moreover, in some cases, to preserve the privacy of clients and data, applying hidden access structures is required. Also, a data owner should be able to update his defined access structure at any time when he is online or not. As in several real-world application scenarios like e-health systems, the anonymity of recipients, and the possibility of updating access structures are two necessary requirements. In this paper, for the first time, we propose an attribute-based access control scheme with hidden access structures enabling the cloud to update access structures on expiry dates defined by a data owner.