Attribute-Based Encryption is a relatively new concept in the field of cryptography, and it allows only the authorized entities to decrypt a message. This type of encryption is the mechanism by which the users may encrypt and decrypt data based on user attributes. This paper proposes the first quantum alternative of the scheme Key-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption, where the information, the encryption/decryption key, and the attributes are made of qutrits.
Attribute-Based Encryption is a relatively new concept in the field of cryptography, and it allows only the authorized entities to decrypt a message. This type of encryption is the mechanism by which the users may encrypt and decrypt data based on user attributes. This paper proposes the first quantum alternative of the scheme Key-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption, where the information, the encryption/decryption key, and the attributes are made of qutrits.
With the growing adoption of cloud computing, ensuring data security in cloud environments has become a critical concern for business organizations. Quantum cryptography utilizes the principles of quantum mechanics to guarantee secure communication, as any attempt to eavesdrop will change the quantum states, alerting the parties of the intrusion. This paper proposes a multi-qubit Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) for cloud security. The proposed multi-qubit QKD model for secure cloud data using quantum cryptography involves the use of a quantum key distribution protocol to generate a secure key for encryption and decryption. This protocol involves sending quantum signals through a quantum channel to distribute a secret key between the sender and the receiver. The key is then used for the encryption and decryption of data using the CP-ABE technique. This technique allows the encryption and decryption of data based on attributes rather than an explicit key exchange, making it particularly suitable for cloud environments where data is stored and processed by multiple users with varying levels of access. The positive results from the proposed simulation model suggest the potential of quantum cryptography in securing cloud data.
In Ciphertext Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) system, a set of attributes is associated with the private keys of each user. Also, the ciphertext is attached with a policy which is defined over that set of attributes. A user can decrypt the ciphertext if the ciphertext’s policy is satisfied by the attributes associated hith her private key. Traditional CP-ABE schemes, based on number theoretic problems, rely on a trustworthy central authority. But in many distributed applications it is expected that such authorities should be decentralized to avoid the risks of single-point failure. While the number theory-based hardness problems are prone to quantum attacks, lattice-based hardness problems can resist such attacks. In this paper, we construct a Decentralized Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (DCP-ABE) scheme. Under this scheme, any participating entity can act as an authority by creating a public key. The athority utilizes the users’ attributes to generate the private keys for them. Any user can encrypt data in terms of any monotone access structure over attributes issued from any chosen set of authorities. Hence the protocol does not depend on any central authority. We utilize Learning With Errors over Rings (R-LWE) as the underlying hardness assumption for te protocol. The proposed post-quantum protocol achieves security under selective-set model whereby adversaries are allowed to corrupt any authority only statically through adaptive key queries.
With the extension of identity-based cryptography,the attribute-based encryption haas been used to control different authorities of decrypting a cipher-text among different users in a more flexible manner.Thus attribute-based encryption has become a hot research topic nowadays.With the development of attribute-based encryption,the attribute-based key exchange has also become a point which attracts a great deal of attention.The distinctive features of key exchange protocols are analyzed.An attribute-based key exchange based on Sahai-Waters attribute-based encryption is proposed,which can flexibly control the access authority of different users.The protocol requires only one round of message sending.Moreover,based on the security request of key exchange protocols,a new security definition for attribute-based key exchange protocol is given.The security of the protocol is proved with the standard model.
Attribute-based encryption (ABE) cryptography is widely known for its potential to solve the scalability issue of recent public key infrastructure (PKI). It provides a fine-grained access control system with high flexibility and efficiency by labeling the secret key and ciphertext with distinctive attributes. Due to its fine-grained features, the ABE scheme is a protection layer in securing users’ data and privacy in big data processing and analytics. However, quantum computing, new technology on the horizon that will transform the security and privacy environment, has begun to appear. Like the conventional ABE schemes, present cryptography is not excluded from the impacts of quantum technology as they are not made to be quantum-resistant. While most recent surveys generally touched on the generic features of attribute-based encryption schemes such as user revocation, scalability, flexibility, data confidentiality, and scope in pairing-based ABE schemes, this survey investigated quantum-resistant ABE schemes in securing big data. This survey reviews the challenges faced by the recent ABE cryptography in the post-quantum era and highlights its differences from the conventional pairing-based ABE schemes. Subsequently, we defined the criteria of an ideal quantum-resistant ABE scheme. Additionally, existing works on quantum-resistant ABE schemes are reviewed based on their algorithms design, security and functionalities. Lastly, we summarized quantum-resistant ABE schemes’ ongoing challenges and future works.
Attribute-based encryption is useful for one-to-many encrypted message sending. However, most attribute-based encryption schemes authorize and issue attributes to users by a single authority. Such a scenario conflicts with practical requirements and may cause the key-escrow problem. Hence, decentralization of authority is a critical issue in attribute-based encryption. Besides, dynamic membership management is another important issue in attribute-based encryption. With dynamic membership management, a system may update the user’s attributes without affecting other users, making the system more flexible and practical. On the other hand, with the rapid development of quantum computers nowadays, encryption schemes based on traditional mathematical problems are at the risk of quantum attacks. Among the existing quantum-resistant mathematical architectures, lattice-based cryptography is the most widely studied. Thus, we propose a multi-authority attribute-based encryption scheme with dynamic membership from lattices to solve the above problems. Moreover, we also formally prove the security of the proposed scheme under the decisional learning with errors assumption.
The energy and power industry faces increasing data security challenges amidst its digital transformation. Databases, as the foundation of digital infrastructure, require advanced encryption techniques to safeguard sensitive information. This paper proposes a novel encryption framework, QKD-ABE, that integrates Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) with Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) to enhance the confidentiality, integrity, and access control of power system data. QKD enables unconditional security in key distribution by leveraging quantum mechanics, effectively preventing key interception and tampering. ABE provides fine-grained access control by enforcing encryption policies based on user attributes, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access private data. The proposed scheme also demonstrates strong resistance to common security threats, including man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks, through quantum measurement disturbance and Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBerr) verification. Experimental results and theoretical analysis indicate that QKD-ABE offers a secure, efficient, and scalable solution for protecting sensitive data in modern smart grid environments.