An Encrypted Cloud Email Searching and Filtering Scheme Based on Hidden Policy Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption With Keyword Search

Abstract

With the rapid growth of cloud email services, email encryption is beginning to be used more and more to alleviate concerns about cloud privacy and security. However, this increase in usage invites the problem of how to search and filter encrypted emails effectively. Searchable public key encryption is a popular technology to solve encrypted email searching, but encrypted email filtering is still an open problem. We propose an encrypted cloud email searching and filtering scheme based on hidden policy ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption with keyword search as a new solution. It enables the recipient to search the encrypted cloud email keywords and allows the email filtering server to filter the encrypted email content when receiving the email, as the traditional email keyword filtering service. Our hidden policy scheme is constructed by composite order bilinear groups and proven secure by dual system encryption methodology. Our scheme can be applied to other scenarios such as file searching and filtering and has certain practical value.