PBE Research Problem Security Design Patterns A PBE Pattern Language The End

Thinking Towards a Pattern Language for PBE Crypto-Systems

Jan de Muijnck-Hughes Ishbel Duncan

School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, UK {jfdm, ishbel.duncan}@st-andrews.ac.uk

22 June 2012

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Classic Public Key Encryption (PKE)

Die and Hellman (1976) (Enc(E ), Dec(E )) KeyGen(k ) (1) (2) (3)

CT Encrypt(Enc(E ), M )

M Decrypt(Dec(E ), CT )

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Classic Public Key Encryption (PKE)

Die and Hellman (1976) (Enc(E ), Dec(E )) KeyGen(k ) (1) (2) (3)

CT Encrypt(Enc(E ), M )

M Decrypt(Dec(E ), CT )

Self-Evident Truths Adapted from Boneh et al. (2010):

1 2 3 4

Cryptographic keys are paired Encryption/Decryption is one-to-one 1-2-Many Encryption is cumbersome Decryption is an atomic transaction

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Modern PKE

Cryptographic keys are not paired

encryption and decryption keys are not linked

Encryption/Decryption is not one-to-one

a cipher-text can be decrypted with multiple decryption keys

3 4

1-2-Many Encryption is easy Decryption is not an atomic transaction

some schemes allow for partial decryption of a cipher-text

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What is PBE?

Predicate Based Encryption (PBE) A family of public key encryption algorithms where decryption is determined by the satisfaction of a predicate by a set of attributes
Functional operation is analogous to ABAC Expressive ne-grained encrypted access control Keys are constructed from sets of attributes and access policies Keys can be specied as strings Predicate placement gives: Ciphertext-Policy (CP): Encrypt under predicates = ABAC Key-Policy (KP): Encrypt under set of attributes = CBAC 1-2-Many Encryption = eciency gains

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General Denition for PBE

Denition (General PBE Scheme) A general PBE scheme consists of the four operations: (MSK, MPK) Setup(1 ) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Dec(input) KeyGen(MSK, input) CT Encrypt(MPK, Enc(M ), M )

M Decrypt(MPK, Dec(input), CT )

where input and Enc(M ) will be either: predicate; or set of attributes.

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Example: CP-ABE

Enc(M ) 786b6364 2e636f6d2 f3335332f Cipher-text Dec(Cobie) name:cobie, gender:female, height=1.76, speaks:nl speaks:en-gb Dec(Ilse) name:ilse, gender:female, height=1.98, speaks:nl speaks:en-us (gender:female height 1.75m (speaks:nl speaks:en-gb))

Dec(Anke) name:anke, gender:female, height=1.60, speaks:en-gb Ilse Anke

Cobie

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PBE Research Problem Security Design Patterns A PBE Pattern Language The End

Uses of PBE

Distributed Encrypted Access Control Using Ciphertext-Policy schemes to provide:

PBE within a Service PBE as a Service Distributed Security

Keyword Search on Encrypted Data Using Key-Policy schemes to provide:

Database Access Database Submission

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PBE Research Problem Security Design Patterns A PBE Pattern Language The End

The Problem

Current Work towards PBE Scheme Specication Bespoke Systems Proof of Concept Investigate the use of PBE Crypto-Systems

Construction Organisational Measures Best Practises Deployment Use by non-domain experts

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Concerns for Crypto-Systems

General Concerns Specication Design Construction Implementation Deployment Use Crypto-System Concerns

Access Control Crypto Primitives Representation of Keys Key Management System Administration

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Research Hypothesis

By using a pattern-based approach, a separation of concerns can be provided that governs how PBE crypto-systems can be leveraged by those who lack expertise within the security, and applied cryptography domains.

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Design Patterns

Denition A three-part rule, which expresses a relation between a certain context, a certain system of forces which occurs repeatedly in that context, and a certain software conguration which allows these forces to resolve themselves Yoshioka et al., 2008.
Well documented solution to a recurrent problem within a particular

context tried and tested design decisions made by domain experts

Cross domain knowledge transfer A separation of concerns between solution conception and application.

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Pattern Languages

Denition A network of tightly interwoven patterns that denes a process for resolving a set of related interdependent software development problems systematically Buschmann et al., 2007.
Representation of complex ideas and systems Single patterns solve simple problems Illustrated using Pattern Diagrams Layers of abstraction

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Security Patterns

Denition Pattern, and Pattern Languages used to describe solutions to recurring security problem Yoder and Barcalow (1997). Examples Enterprise Physical Access Control, Management. . . User Password selection, Privacy. . . Cryptography Key Management, Information Secrecy. . . Network Firewalls, Secure Channels. . . Software IAM, Access Control. . .

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PBE Research Problem Security Design Patterns A PBE Pattern Language The End

Proposed Pattern Language

Abstract Security Patterns Direct Authentication Brokered Authentication Federated Identity Async. Sec. Channel

Deployment

PBE within a Service

PBE as a Service

Distributed Security

Database Access

Database Submission

Types

CP PBE

KP PBE

Components

Access Control

Group Info. Secrecy

Tokens/ Credentials

Token Management

System Administration

PBE Pattern Language

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PBE Research Problem Security Design Patterns A PBE Pattern Language The End

Addressing Crypto-System Concerns

Cryptography Patterns exist for Information Secrecy, Key Managment Written for Classic Public Key Encryption (PKE)! Need new patterns designed for PBE Access Control Use existing patterns Ciphertext-Policy = ABAC Pattern Key-Policy = Capability Pattern Use attribute and policy patterns to represent keys. System Administration
Construct guidance patterns Access Control and Key Generation

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Other Construction Challenges

Modelling CP and KP Patterns Selecting lower level patterns Ensuring correctness Modelling Deployment Patterns
Correct modelling of deployment patterns Ensuring correctness

Level of Abstraction How concrete should the pattern language be? Specify software libraries, and settings?

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Pattern Language Evaluation

How to evaluate our pattern language? Not a well documented area! Need to develop a evaluation methodology. . . Qualitative or Quantitative approach?

Possible Evaluation Criteria?

Ease of Use i.e. can novices use the patterns Appropriatness for Solution Quality of Documentation Quality of Security Eectivness i.e. metrics

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Conclusion

Take Home Messages

PBE schemes are very powerful! Ecient ne-grained encrypted access control. Patterns help address Separation of Concerns Allow non-domain experts to leverage strange ideas

Summary
Outlined a pattern-based approach to the deployment of PBE

crypto-systems
Overview of perceived challenges Construction Evaluation

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Conclusion cont. . .

Future Work
There is a lot! Investigate requirements for organisational measures for key

management
Construct the Pattern Language Evaluate the Pattern Language

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Further Reading

Functional Encryption Schemes Dan Boneh et al. (2010). Functional Encryption: Denitions and Challenges. Cryptology ePrint Archive, Report 2010/543 Security Patterns
Nobukazu Yoshioka et al. (2008). A Survey on Security Patterns.

In: Progress in Informatics 5, pp. 3347

Michaela Bunke et al. (2011). Application-Domain Classication for

Security Patterns. In: PATTERNS 2011, The Third International Conferences on Pervasive Patterns and Applications. Rome, Italy: ThinkMind, pp. 138143. ISBN: 978-1-61208-158-8

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Further Reading cont. . .

For more information:

I maintain an extensive bibliography on cryptography, security, and

other topics on-line: http://www.citeulike.org/user/jfdm

I also keep notes on my departmental web-page.

http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~jfdm/notes.html
You can also email me. Or speak to me oine.

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Thanks for Listening

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