An efficient hierarchical attribute-based encryption scheme with cross-domain data sharing

Abstract

With the rapid advancement of data sharing technology, an increasing amount of data is being stored on cloud servers. To enable fine-grained access control over the data stored on cloud servers, the Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) technology has been widely adopted. Recognizing that shared data and files often possess a hierarchical structure, hierarchical CP-ABE technology has been proposed recently. However, most existing schemes are restricted to single-domain data access, which limits their flexibility and universal applicability in practical applications. To address this limitation, an access control scheme based on hierarchical CP-ABE, named CDS-CP-ABE, is proposed to facilitate secure and efficient cross-domain data sharing. The scheme is capable of not only realizing fine-grained hierarchical access control within a single domain but also enabling cross-domain data sharing. Security analysis confirms that our scheme effectively resists chosen-plaintext attack. Furthermore, empirical results indicate that the time consumption associated with our scheme is lower compared to other existing schemes.