NAC-ABE: Named-based Access Control with Attribute-based Encryption

1. Overview

Named Data Networking Attribute-based Encryption Support Library: NAC-ABE

The publication of this work is NAC: Automating Access Control via Named Data on IEEE MILCOM 2018. To cite the work, you can use the following Bibtex entry.

@inproceedings{zhang2018nac,
  title={NAC: Automating access control via Named Data},
  author={Zhang, Zhiyi and Yu, Yingdi and Ramani, Sanjeev Kaushik and Afanasyev, Alex and Zhang, Lixia},
  booktitle={MILCOM 2018-2018 IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM)},
  pages={626--633},
  year={2018},
  organization={IEEE}
}

2. Quick Start

2.1 Dependency

2.1.1 ndn-cxx

NAC-ABE is implemented over the Named Data Networking. To install the NAC-ABE library, you need to first install ndn-cxx library.

To work with the version 0.1.0, please checkout ndn-cxx-0.7.0 and install.

To work with the master version, please checkout ndn-cxx-0.8.0 and install.

2.1.2 openabe

NAC-ABE is using cryptography support provided by library openabe. To install openabe, you can visit the website.

(As noticed in July 7, 2020) When installing the OpenABE, there could be some issues installing gTest (on Ubuntu) or Bison 3.3 (on MacOS). While waiting for the OpenABE maintainer to fix them, as a quick solution, you can fix these issues manually.

2.2 Install NAC-ABE

Really simple to make it using waf.

2.2.1 Download

git clone https://github.com/UCLA-IRL/NAC-ABE.git

2.2.2 Building

NAC-ABE support building by both CMake and waf build.

2.2.2.1 CMake build

We start by configuring:

# in the root directory of NAC-ABE
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..

Or if you want to enable tests:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DHAVE_TESTS=True ..

Then compile and install:

make
make install

2.2.2.2 waf build (deprecated)

We start by configuring:

# in the root directory of NAC-ABE
./waf configure

or if you want to enable tests.

./waf configure --with-tests

Then compile with

./waf

And install by

./waf install

2.3 Run Tests

To run tests, you must have -DHAVE_TESTS=True when you config the project.

# in the build directory of NAC-ABE
#run all the tests (including integrate test)
cp ../examples/trust-schema.conf trust-schema.conf
./tests/unit-tests

2.4 Run Examples

To run example, you must have -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=True when you config the project.

# in the examples directory of NAC-ABE
# nfd-start & (if your NFD has not started)
bash run-examples.sh ../build

3 Documentation

The library mainly provide supports for four roles in an NDN based ABE scenario.

Attribute Authority. The party who owns the system master key. It publishes the public parameters to the system and generate decryption keys for decryptors.
Data owner. The party who decides how encryptors should encrypt their data.
Encryptor. The party who follows data owner's decision and produce encrypted data.
Decryptor. The party who get decryption keys from the attribute authority and consume encrypted data.

These four parties are implemented in five classes in the library: CpAttributeAuthority, KpAttributeAuthority, DataOwner, producer, and consumer.

For now, Both Ciphertext Policy Attribute-based Encryption (CP-ABE) and Key Policy Attribute-based Encryption (KP-ABE) is supported.

From the perspective of the data flow:

Content is encrypted by the content KEY (CK), which is a symmetric AES key
CK is encrypted by the attribute policy (EKEY)
CK can only be decrypted when the attributes (DKEY) can satisfy the EKEY
Decryptor obtains an DKEY from attribute authorities
Encryptor knows which EKEY to use from the data owner

3.1 Attribute Authority

Instantiate a new attribute authority

// obtain or create a certificate for attribute authority for CP-ABE
CpAttributeAuthority aa(aaCert, face, keychain);

// obtain or create a certificate for attribute authority for KP-ABE
KpAttributeAuthority aa(aaCert, face, keychain);

Add policy

Add a new decryptor and its corresponding attribute list into authority:

// obtain the decryptor's certificate for CP-ABE
std::list<std::string> attrList = {"ucla", "professor"};
aa.addNewPolicy(decryptorCertificate, attrList);

// obtain the decryptor's certificate for KP-ABE
String policy = "ucla and cs and (exam or quiz);
aa.addNewPolicy(decryptorCertificate, policy);

After starting an attribute authority and added policies for decryptors, the attribute authority will listen to the prefix /<attribute authority prefix>/DKEY to answer possible attribute request from decryptors. When a request arrives, the attribute authority will first use a known decryptor cetificate to verify the request, then locates the attribtue lists of this decryptor. After that, the attribute authority will create a new AES key to cpEncrypt the attributes, then use the decryptor's RSA public key from the certificate to cpEncrypt the AES key. The encrypted attributes will be returned back to the decryptor.

3.2 Data Owner

Instantiate a new data owner

// obtain or create a certificate for data owner
DataOwner dataOwner = DataOwner(dataOwnerCert, face, keychain);

Command a data producer

Command a data producer to apply certain policy when producing certain Data packets.

//for CP-ABE
dataOwner.commandProducerPolicy(Name("/producer"), Name("/healthdata"), "ucla and professor", successCallback, failCallback);

//for KP-ABE
dataOwner.commandProducerPolicy(Name("/producer"), Name("/healthdata"), {"ucla", "cs", "exam"}, successCallback, failCallback);

To command a data producer, the data owner will use its own private key to sign the command Interest. The command Interest is of format: /<producer prefix>/SET_POLICY/<data prefix block>/<policy string>.

3.3 Encryptor (Data Producer)

Instantiate a new encryptor

Producer producer = Producer(face, keychain, producerCert, aaCert, dataOwnerCert);

After starting a encryptor, the encryptor will automatically fetch the public parameters from the attribute authority.

After starting a encryptor, the encryptor will listen to the prefix /<producer prefix>/SET_POLICY for the data owner to command the policy. When a command Interest arrives, the encryptor will verify the command Interest with the data owner's certificate.

Produce a new data

std::shared_ptr<Data> contentData, ckData;
std::tie(contentData, ckData) = producer.produce(dataName, PLAIN_TEXT);

This function will automatically find the policy that is previously obtained from the command issued by the data owner.

The encryptor can also produce a new data using a new policy:

std::shared_ptr<Data> contentData, ckData;
// for CP-ABE
std::tie(contentData, ckData) = producer.produce(dataName, "ucla and professor", PLAIN_TEXT);
// for KP-ABE
std::tie(contentData, ckData) = producer.produce(dataName, {"ucla", "cs", "exam"}, PLAIN_TEXT);

Reusing content keys

To produce multiple data under the same content key (thus the same policy), use the content key generation API:

std::shared_ptr<ContentKey> contentKey;
std::shared_ptr<Data> ckData;
// for CP-ABE
std::tie(contentKey, ckData) = producer.ckDataGen(dataName, "ucla and professor", PLAIN_TEXT);
// for KP-ABE
std::tie(contentKey, ckData) = producer.ckDataGen(dataName, {"ucla","cs","exam"}, PLAIN_TEXT);

Then, for each Data:

std::shared_ptr<Data> contentData;
// for CP-ABE
contentData = producer.produce(contentKey, ckData.getName(), dataName, "ucla and professor", PLAIN_TEXT);
// for KP-ABE
contentData = producer.produce(contentKey, ckData.getName(), dataName, {"ucla","cs","exam"}, PLAIN_TEXT);

You can also use CacheProducer, which will automatically cache and reuse all the keys generated.

3.4 Decryptor (Data Consumer)

Instantiate a new decryptor

Consumer consumer = Consumer(face, keyChain, consumerCert, aaCert);

After starting a decryptor, the decryptor will automatically fetch the public parameters from the attribute authority.

Obtain the decryption key (DKEY), i.e., attributes

consumer.obtainDecryptionKey();

This function will fetch the DKEY from the attribute authority.

Consume data

consumer.consume(dataName, successCallback, failCallback);

This function will fetch the content Data packet by the name, fetch the corresponding encrypted CK Data packet. Then it uses its decryption key (DKEY) to cpDecrypt the CK, then use the CK to cpDecrypt the content Data packet.

4 Issue Report

If you have any problems or want to do bug report. Please submit a GitHub issue.

UCLA-IRL / NAC-ABE