Unbounded HIBE and attribute-based encryption

Abstract

In this work, we present HIBE and ABE schemes which are "unbounded" in the sense that the public parameters do not impose additional limitations on the functionality of the systems. In all previous constructions of HIBE in the standard model, a maximum hierarchy depth had to be fixed at setup. In all previous constructions of ABE in the standard model, either a small universe size or a bound on the size of attribute sets had to be fixed at setup. Our constructions avoid these limitations. We use a nested dual system encryption argument to prove full security for our HIBE scheme and selective security for our ABE scheme, both in the standard model and relying on static assumptions. Our ABE scheme supports LSSS matrices as access structures and also provides delegation capabilities to users. © 2011 International Association for Cryptologic Research.