Semi-generic Transformation of Revocable Hierarchical Identity-Based Encryption and its DBDH Instantiation

Abstract

Boneh and Franklin considered to add the revocation functionality to identity-based encryption (IBE). Though this methodology is applicable to any IBE and hierarchical IBE (HIBE), the resulting scheme is non-scalable. Therefore, a generic transformation of scalable revocable (H) IBE (R(H) IBE) from non-scalable R(H) IBE is really desirable. Towards this final goal, in this paper we introduce prototype RHIBE which does not require to be scalable (but requires some conditions), and propose a generic transformation of scalable RHIBE from prototype RHIBE. Moreover, we construct a prototype RHIBE scheme based on the decisional bilinear Diffie-Hellman (DBDH) assumption. Since our prototype RHIBE provides history-free update, insider security, and decryption key exposure resistance, our construction yields the first RHIBE scheme based on the static assumption with these desirable properties.