Paper 2023/952

Limits on Adaptive Security for Attribute-Based Encryption

Zvika Brakerski, Weizmann Institute of Science
Stav Medina, Weizmann Institute of Science
Abstract

This work addresses the long quest for proving full (adaptive) security for attribute-based encryption (ABE). We show that in order to prove full security in a black-box manner, the scheme must be ``irregular'' in the sense that it is impossible to ``validate'' secret keys to ascertain consistent decryption of ciphertexts. This extends a result of Lewko and Waters (Eurocrypt 2014) that was only applicable to straight-line proofs (without rewinding). Our work, therefore, establishes that it is impossible to circumvent the irregularity property using creative proof techniques, so long as the adversary is used in a black-box manner. As a consequence, our work provides an explanation as to why some lattice-based ABE schemes cannot be proven fully secure, even though no known adaptive attacks exist.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Public-key cryptography
Publication info
Preprint.
Keywords
Attribute-Based EncryptionAdaptive Security
Contact author(s)
zvika brakerski @ weizmann ac il
stav medina @ weizmann ac il
History
2023-06-19: approved
2023-06-18: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2023/952
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2023/952,
      author = {Zvika Brakerski and Stav Medina},
      title = {Limits on Adaptive Security for Attribute-Based Encryption},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2023/952},
      year = {2023},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/952}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/952}
}
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