Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Searching for Encrypted Data on Blockchain: An Efficient, Secure and Fair Realization

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Information Security (ISC 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13640))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) is a research hotspot in applied cryptography, with the purpose of protecting outsourced data while enabling querying of encrypted data. However, the majority of current research focuses on the scenario in which data is stored on a single server and disregards the possibility that both the clients and servers are malicious. While several existing blockchain-based SSE schemes provide solutions to the issues above, they do not simultaneously achieve security, fairness, and decentralized storage.

In this paper, we explore how to efficiently solve the above problems in the blockchain setting. We build up a decentralized fair SSE framework in a layered fashion. First, we present a practical and efficient method for accessing data on the blockchain. Based on this, we craft a decentralized publicly verifiable SSE scheme in which encrypted indexes are stored on the blockchain and search operations are shifted to be executed off-chain for lightweight decentralized storage and efficient query performance. Then, we use smart contracts to confer fairness to SSE by constructing a game model that makes each party prefer to cooperate. Finally, we implement and evaluate our framework on Ethereum. The experimental results demonstrate that our design is effective and practical.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Adkins, D., Agarwal, A., Kamara, S., Moataz, T.: Encrypted blockchain databases. In: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies, pp. 241–254 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Asharov, G., Naor, M., Segev, G., Shahaf, I.: Searchable symmetric encryption: optimal locality in linear space via two-dimensional balanced allocations. In: Proceedings of the Forty-Eighth Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, pp. 1101–1114 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bost, R., Fouque, P.A., Pointcheval, D.: Verifiable dynamic symmetric searchable encryption: optimality and forward security. Cryptology ePrint Archive (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Cai, C., Weng, J., Yuan, X., Wang, C.: Enabling reliable keyword search in encrypted decentralized storage with fairness. IEEE Trans. Depend. Secure Comput. (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Cash, D., et al.: Dynamic searchable encryption in very-large databases: data structures and implementation. In: NDSS, vol. 14, pp. 23–26. Citeseer (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chen, L., Lee, W.K., Chang, C.C., Choo, K.K.R., Zhang, N.: Blockchain based searchable encryption for electronic health record sharing. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 95, 420–429 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Curtmola, R., Garay, J., Kamara, S., Ostrovsky, R.: Searchable symmetric encryption: improved definitions and efficient constructions. In: Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 79–88 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hu, S., Cai, C., Wang, Q., Wang, C., Luo, X., Ren, K.: Searching an encrypted cloud meets blockchain: a decentralized, reliable and fair realization. In: IEEE INFOCOM 2018-IEEE Conference on Computer Communications, pp. 792–800. IEEE (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jiang, S., et al.: Privacy-preserving and efficient multi-keyword search over encrypted data on blockchain. In: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain), pp. 405–410. IEEE (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Jiang, S., Liu, J., Wang, L., Yoo, S.M.: Verifiable search meets blockchain: a privacy-preserving framework for outsourced encrypted data. In: ICC 2019–2019 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), pp. 1–6. IEEE (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Katz, J., Lindell, Y.: Introduction to Modern Cryptography. Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, Hoboken (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Leiserson, C.E., Rivest, R.L., Cormen, T.H., Stein, C.: Introduction to Algorithms, vol. 3. MIT Press, Cambridge (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Li, H., Gu, C., Chen, Y., Li, W.: An efficient, secure and reliable search scheme for dynamic updates with blockchain. In: Proceedings of the 2019 the 9th International Conference on Communication and Network Security, pp. 51–57 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Li, H., Tian, H., Zhang, F., He, J.: Blockchain-based searchable symmetric encryption scheme. Comput. Electr. Eng. 73, 32–45 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Li, H., Zhang, F., He, J., Tian, H.: A searchable symmetric encryption scheme using blockchain. arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.01030 (2017)

  16. Song, D.X., Wagner, D., Perrig, A.: Practical techniques for searches on encrypted data. In: Proceeding 2000 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. S &P 2000, pp. 44–55. IEEE (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Tang, Q.: Towards blockchain-enabled searchable encryption. In: Zhou, J., Luo, X., Shen, Q., Xu, Z. (eds.) ICICS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11999, pp. 482–500. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41579-2_28

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Wood, G., et al.: Ethereum: a secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. In: Ethereum Project Yellow Paper, vol. 151, pp. 1–32 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Xu, C., Yu, L., Zhu, L., Zhang, C.: A blockchain-based dynamic searchable symmetric encryption scheme under multiple clouds. Peer-to-Peer Network. Appl. 14(6), 3647–3659 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-021-01202-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Yan, X., Yuan, X., Ye, Q., Tang, Y.: Blockchain-based searchable encryption scheme with fair payment. IEEE Access 8, 109687–109706 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Yang, Y., Lin, H., Liu, X., Guo, W., Zheng, X., Liu, Z.: Blockchain-based verifiable multi-keyword ranked search on encrypted cloud with fair payment. IEEE Access 7, 140818–140832 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Zhang, Y., Deng, R.H., Shu, J., Yang, K., Zheng, D.: TKSE: trustworthy keyword search over encrypted data with two-side verifiability via blockchain. IEEE Access 6, 31077–31087 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2019B030302008) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61972429).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Jianzhang Chen, Haibo Tian & Fangguo Zhang

  2. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Information Security Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Jianzhang Chen, Haibo Tian & Fangguo Zhang

Authors
  1. Jianzhang Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Haibo Tian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fangguo Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fangguo Zhang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Willy Susilo

  2. Xidian University, Xian, China

    Xiaofeng Chen

  3. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Fuchun Guo

  4. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Yudi Zhang

  5. Petra Christian University, Surabaya, Indonesia

    Rolly Intan

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Chen, J., Tian, H., Zhang, F. (2022). Searching for Encrypted Data on Blockchain: An Efficient, Secure and Fair Realization. In: Susilo, W., Chen, X., Guo, F., Zhang, Y., Intan, R. (eds) Information Security. ISC 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13640. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22390-7_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22390-7_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-22389-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-22390-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation