Privacy Protection based Access Control Scheme in

Cloud-based Services
Kai Fan, Qiong Tian, Nana Yue Wang Hui Li Yintang Yang
Huang School of Information State Key Laboratory of Key Lab. of the Minist. of
State Key Laboratory of Engineering Integrated Service Networks Educ. for Wide Band-Gap
Integrated Service Networks Xi’an University Xidian University Semiconductor Materials and
Xidian University Xi’an, China Xi’an, China Devices
Xi’an, China [email protected] [email protected] Xidian University
[email protected] Xi’an, China
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract—With the rapid development of the computer

technology, cloud-based services have become a hot topic. Cloud-
[4] used multi authority ABE (MA-ABE) to solve key escrow
based services not only provide users with convenience, but also issue. But the access policy is not flexible. Li et al [5]
bring many security issues. Therefore, the study of access control presented data sharing scheme based on systemic attribute
scheme to protect users' privacy in cloud environment is of great encryption, which endows different users’ different access
significance. In this paper, we present an access control system rights. But it is not efficient from the complexity and
with privilege separation based on privacy protection (PS-ACS). efficiency. In 2014, Chen et al. [6] proposed Key-Aggregate
In the PS-ACS scheme, we divide the users into personal domain Encryption algorithm, effectively shortening the length of the
(PSD) and public domain (PUD) logically. In the PSD, we set ciphertext and the key, but only for the situation where the data
read and write access permissions for users respectively. The owner knows the user's identity. These schemes above only
Key-Aggregate Encryption (KAE) is exploited to implement the focus on one aspect of the research, and do not have a strict
read access permission which improves the access efficiency. A uniform standards either. In this paper, we present a more
high degree of patient privacy is guaranteed simultaneously by systematic, flexible and efficient access control scheme. To
exploiting an Improved Attribute-based Signature (IABS) which this end, we make the following main contributions:
can determine the users’ write access. For the users of PUD, a
hierarchical attribute-based encryption (HABE) is applied to 1. We propose a novel access control system called PS-
avoid the issues of single point of failure and complicated key ACS, which is privilege separation based on privacy protection.
distribution. Function and performance testing result shows that The system uses Key-Aggregate Encryption (KAE) scheme
the PS-ACS scheme can achieve privacy protection in cloud- and Hierarchy Attribute-based Encryption (HABE) scheme to
based services. implement read access control scheme in the PSD and PUD
respectively. The KAE scheme greatly improves access
Keywords- access control; data sharing; privacy protection; efficiency and the HABE scheme largely reduces the task of a
cloud-based services single authority and protects the privacy of user data.

I. INTRODUCTION 2. Compared with the MAH-ABE scheme which does not

refer to the write access control, we exploit an Improved
With the rapid development of cloud computing, big data Attribute-based Signature (IABS) [7-9] scheme to enforce
and public cloud services have been widely used. The user can write access control in the PSD. In this way, the user can pass
store his data in the cloud service. Although cloud computing the cloud server’s signature verification without disclosing the
brings great convenience to enterprises and users, the cloud identity, and successfully modify the file.
computing security has always been a major hazard. For users,
it is necessary to take full advantage of cloud storage service, 3. We provide a thorough analysis of security and
and also to ensure data privacy. Therefore, we need to develop complexity of our proposed PS-ACS scheme. The
an effective access control solution. Since the traditional access functionality and simulation results provide data security in
control strategy [1] cannot effectively solve the security acceptable performance impact, and prove the feasibility of
problems that exist in data sharing. Data security issues the scheme.
brought by data sharing have seriously hindered the
development of cloud computing, various solutions to achieve II. SYSTEM MODEL
encryption and decryption of data sharing have been proposed. As shown in Fig.1, our system model consists of Data
In 2007, Bethencourt et al. [2] first proposed the ciphertext owner, users in PSD, and users in PUD, root authority CA,
policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE). However, this regional authority AA and cloud service provider, which are
scheme does not consider the revocation of access defined as follows.
permissions. In 2011, Hur et al. [3] put forward a fine-grained
revocation scheme but it can easily cause key escrow issue. 1. The cloud service provider consists of two parts: data
Lewko et al. storage server and data service management. Data storage
server is responsible for storing confidential data files, and data have a close relationship with the owner and the number is
service management is in charge of controlling external users’ small, there is no need to use the CP-ABE which is applicable
access to secret data and returning the corresponding to the scenario which has a lot of users, and their identities are
ciphertext. unknown to the owner, while the KAE scheme is set for the
2. In the actual cloud environment, CA manages multiple small users with certain identities. Besides, the distribution
AA, and AA each manages attributes in their own field. The and management of keys and attributes, encryption and
attributes owned by the user are issued by different authority. decryption process of CP-ABE are much more complex
compared with the KAE scheme. Therefore, the KAE is
3. Personal domain (PSD), in which users have special exploited to implement the read access permission which
privileges, such as family, personal assistant, close friends and improves the access efficiency.
partners. This domain has a small number of users and small
scale attributes, and the data owner knows the user's identity, Based on the above analysis, the paper uses the Aggregate
which is easy to manage. Key Encryption scheme to encrypt the data files to realize
different read access control. The specific application process
4. Public domain (PUD), which owns a huge number of of the KAE algorithm is as follows.
users with unknown identity and a lot of attributes owned by
the user. 1. System setup and file encryption. The system first runs
Setup of KAE to establish the public system parameter and
5. Data Owner, based on the characteristics of users in master key. Each owner classified the file by its data attribute,
public and personal domain to develop different access control such as “photo files”, “blog files” and “game files”. Fig.2
strategy, encrypt uploaded files using the corresponding shows the way to classify the files. Choose and label the files,
encryption method and then send to the cloud server. denoted by i i  1,2 ,..., n , note that a file class i cannot be
1˅5HTXHVW IiOH

the subset of another file class j  j  1,2 ,..., n  . Then the

²˅5HWXUQ FiSKHUWH[W
&ORXG 6HUYiFH 3URYiGHU 3˅0RGiI\ IiOH
4˅6iJQDWXUH DQG 8SORDG WKH
HQFU\SWHG IiOH 5˅6iJQDWXUH
YHUiIiFDWiRQ
6˅8VHUV UHYRFDWiRQ
owner’s client application runs Encrypt of KAE using the
7˅DHOHWH IiOHV
8˅$VViJQ DWWUiEXWHV public key and the number of classification file to encrypt the
DDWD IiOH DDWD
6HUYHU DDWD VHUYiFH
9˅DiVWUiEXWiRQ NH\V
PHR files and sends them to the cloud.
PDQDJHU
2. Access and key distribution. When the user send access
request to the cloud server, and his file index number is i , then
˄1˅
˄5˅ ˄²˅
˄3˅
˄1˅˄²˅(1)(²) (1)˄²˅˄²˅(1)
the cloud server returns the corresponding encrypted
˄4˅
KH\
classification file to the user. The owner authorized users
access permission with the file index number denoted by j and
8VHU
sent the collection S of all the index number j to CA, CA
8VHU 8VHU
generate an aggregate decryption key for a set of ciphertext
76I*
(8)˄9˅ (8)˄9˅ 8VHU classes via Extract of KAE and sent it to the corresponding
$$11
user, Finally, any user with an aggregate key can decrypt any
8VHUV(8)
$$1² (8)˄9˅ ciphertext whose class is contained in the aggregate key via
˄9˅(8) ˄9˅
˄9˅˄9˅
(8) Decrypt of KAE.
$$1 $$²
˄8˅ (8)
˄9˅ ˄9˅ (8)
2ZQHU ˄9˅
˄9˅
&$
3UiYDWH $UHD 3XEOiF $UHD

Figure 1. System framework

III. ACCESS CONTROL SCHEME IN PSD

A. Read Access Control

The PSD has a small number of users, and their identities
are known to the owner. In general, the data owner only wants
the users to access or modify parts of data files, and different
users can access and modify different parts of the data. For
example, the blogger can allow his friend to browse part of his B.Figure
Write Access
2. Data Control
file classification
private photos; enterprises can also authorize employees to
access or modify part of sensitive data. This requires the data As Chen’s MAH-ABE scheme does not refer to the write
owner to grant users read or write access permission to some access control, and in the PSD some cases exist, for example,
data. In Chen’s MAH-ABE scheme, the CP-ABE is used to the owner needs his friends to modify his file after he read it.
achieve the read access permission, but there are some defects So we proposed the write access permission in the PSD. For
to be considered. Firstly, since in the PSD, the users are all the user, the public key and file class label are all known, he
can implement the algorithm to encrypt the files after he the attribute-based encryption scheme (CP-ABE) can achieve
modified, and then upload them to the cloud. But whether the access control, it cannot meet the needs of complex cloud
cloud server saves the modified file is decided by the write environment. In traditional CP-ABE scheme, there is only one
access control policy. On the one hand, in the complex cloud authorized agency responsible for the management of attributes
environment, if a user’s modification operations are very and distribution of keys. The authority may be a university
frequent, maybe he is very important to the user, so that the registrar's office, the company's HR department or government
user may be stricken from outside attacks. Therefore, the user educational organizations and so on. The data owner defines
worries the leak of identity after the signature. On the other access policies and encrypts the data files in accordance with
hand, in the data sharing scheme, the separate access of read this policy. Each user is distributed a key related to his
and write to the file is extremely important. In PSD, not all attribute. As long as the user's attributes meet the access policy
users who have read permissions also have write permissions he can decrypt the file. However, if there is only one authority
to the files. Whether the user has write permissions to the file in the system and all public and private keys are issued by the
is decided by the data owner. Therefore, this paper selects the authority. Two problems will appear in the practical
improved attribute-based signature (IABS) to determine the application:
user's write permission.
1. In the practical cloud environment, there are a lot of
The main structure of the scheme includes five parts: an authorities and each authority in their own field manages part
authentication center (CA), the data owner, users, mediator of users’ attributes. The attributes owned by the user are issued
and cloud servers. The CA is responsible for generating master from different authorities. For example, a data owner may
key which is sent to the owner and system parameters which want to share his medical data with a user who owns the
are shared for all users. The mediator holds part components doctor attribute issued by medical institutions and the medical
of the signature keys and is responsible for the validity check researcher attribute by the clinic practice management.
of attributes and users. The data owner produces the signature Therefore, exploiting multi authority is more realistic in the
tree and sends it directly to the cloud server. The user encrypts practical scenarios.
the modified files and signs them using the attribute-based
signature, then uploads them to the cloud server. The cloud 2. If there is only one authority, all the distribution of the
server verifies the attribute-based signature, if the keys are handed over by one trusted authority. The frequent
authentication is successful, the user has permission to modify interaction between the user and trust authority will not only
files and the cloud server stores the file. Own to the limited bring bottlenecks for the system load capacity, but also
space we will omit the specific description of the IABS increase the potential security risks. Therefore, multi authority
scheme in PSD. ABE (MA-ABE) is used in this paper.
Users in PUD do not need to interact directly with the data
IV. ACCESS CONTROL SCHEME IN PUD owner, and the attributes of the user are called role attributes.
Before introducing our proposed secure authentication Firstly the data owner uploads the attribute-based encrypted
protocol, we first make a statement for the notations used in data files to the cloud server. Then after authorized, the data
the later, all of them are listed in Table I. owner receives the corresponding decryption key and sends a
data file access request directly from the cloud server. Finally,
after the cloud server returns the ciphertext, users can use their
own decryption key to decrypt the ciphertext. The framework
Notation Description of this area is shown in Fig.3.
PUD Public Domain
PRD Private Domain &ORXG 6HUYHU

CP-ABE GDWD DFFHVV

Ciphertext-policy Attribute-Based Encryption HQFiSKHUHG
GDWD
MA-ABE Multi-authority Attribute-based Encryption
HABE Hierarchical Attribute Encryption GDWD RZQHU
$XWKRUi]HG XVHU
CK Encryption Key
$WWUiEXWH D$1 $WWUiEXWH
K Key Space D$² D$N
GiVWUiEXWiRQ DQG NH\ DXWKRUi]DWiRQ GiVWUiEXWiRQ DQG NH\ DXWKRUi]DWiRQ
PK Public Key
SK Secret Key
KAE Key-Aggregate Encryption
CA Authorization Center
Figure 3. Access control framework of PUD
Table I

A. Scheme Design B. Access Control Process

The PUD is characterized by a huge number of users, a lot Based on the above analysis, we use a hierarchical attribute
of attributes owned by the user, complexity management, and encryption scheme (HABE) to implement access control in
indefinite users’ identity. In view of the above characteristics, PUD.
the user can only have the read access permission. Although
 1. Files creation: The creating of files is completed by the the data owner and sent directly to the cloud server. The CA
data owner. In general, in order to protect the privacy of the does not know the signature policy. Assuming that CA cannot
data file, the data owner firstly encrypts data file, and then give itself authorization, as long as the attributes of CA cannot
stores it in the cloud. To reduce the ciphertext size and meet the access policy, it is not valid to modify the file. Thus,
complexity, the data owner combines the symmetric the write access permissions still belong to the data owner. In
encryption scheme with public key encryption scheme, namely the process of the users’ signature, the signature key is only
that each file is firstly encrypted with symmetric encryption related to the users’ attributes, so the user's identity is safe. On
key called CK, then CK is encrypted with the HABE program. the whole, the IABS scheme can protect users’ identity
Before the data file uploaded to the cloud, the process of privacy.
creating a data file is as follows:
In PUD, this paper employs the HABE scheme for the large
1) Select a unique ID for the data file. number of users with uncertain identity in this region. For the
2) Choose a random symmetric encryption trusted CA, it can only issue the private key and the
R
key CK   K . K means key space, and encrypt the data corresponding attribute structure to the authority in the first
file with CK. level not to the users, so that the CA does not directly control
the user's private key, thus reducing the trust in CA. In
3) Define access tree T, use the addition, the user's private keys are managed by multiple
authorized agencies, which can avoid users’ privacy leakage.
algorithm H A B E . E n c r y p t  P K e , C K , to encrypt CK
T 
and return the CT. B. Simulation Analysis
4) The data owner computes the CT by hash operations and In our KAE scheme in the PSD, the system parameters are
signs h(CT) to get the signature SG , on the one hand to generated by the trusted authority, which is not within our
consideration. Furthermore, the e˄ˆ g , g ˅can be calculated
in 1 n
ensure the integrity of the data, on the other hand to facilitate
the cloud and user to authenticate the identity of the data the system setup. In addition, the aggregate key only needs
owner. one pairing operation, and to calculate a pairing operation is
very fast, the specific comparison can be seen in Fig.4.
2. Data access: If the user wants to access a data file, he
should get the file from the cloud server and decrypt the
0.45
encrypted data file, which corresponds to the decryption Total time of KAE
process. There are two stages: firstly use the algorithm 0.4 Total time of ABE

HABE  Encrypt PK e , CK , T  to decrypt the symmetric 0.35

encryption key CK, then use the key CK to decrypt the data file.
0.3
3. Files deletion: If the data owner wants to delete a file,
Time consuming

he can send the file ID and his signature SG to the cloud 0.25

server, then the cloud servers delete the files after verifying 0.2
the signature of the data owner.
0.15
4. Attribute revocation: The authority assigns attributes to
each user and attaches the set of attributes with an expiration 0.1

time T . The attributes of access control tree contain a time 0.05

attribute T  , if T  T  and the attributes match, then this file
can be access to. So the data owner can restrict users’ access 0
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
permissions by changing the time attributes. The number of file attributes

5. Users’ attributes Revocation: The DA calculates the

Figure 4. Total time of KAE and ABE
minimum set of attributes A min that allows users’ access
revocation, and Anew  A  A , making T A  returns In Fig.4, the attribute-based encryption algorithm of the
min min

null. Set a new expiration time to each attribute set, generate MAH-ABE scheme spent much more time than the KAE
new private key components and return it to the client. algorithm used in our scheme. If the attribute revocation
occurs, the ABE algorithm will be more time-consuming. More
V. SYSTEM SIMULATION AND importantly, the growth rate of time spent with the number of
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS file attributes is much higher than KAE algorithm. The
simulation results show the high efficiency of our scheme.
A. Security Analysis In Fig.5, the user only needs a very short time to sign the
In PSD, the user can only decrypt the files corresponding modified files. While, the authentication time only makes up a
to the received aggregate keys and do not have access to other small part, so the process of signature and authentication
files, so that the data owner controls the users’ access consume a very small time. Therefore, from the client's
permissions. When the data file is modified, although CA is perspective, the program is efficient.
trusted, also the system parameters and revocation instructions
are generated by the CA. The signature policy is formulated
by
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
1.6
Signature time This paper is supported by the National Natural Science
1.4 Certification time
Foundation of China (No. 61303216, No. 61272457, No.
Total time of IABS
U1401251, and No. 61373172), the National High Technology
1.2
Research and Development Program of China (863 Program)
1
(No. 2012AA013102), the China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation funded project (No.2013M542328), and National
Time consuming

0.8 111 Program of China B16037 and B08038.

0.6
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0.4
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