Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Janus: Hierarchical Multi-blockchain Based Access Control (HMBAC) for Multi-Authority & Multi-Domain Environments

Version 1 : Received: 9 December 2022 / Approved: 19 December 2022 / Online: 19 December 2022 (03:19:23 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Malamas, V.; Palaiologos, G.; Kotzanikolaou, P.; Burmester, M.; Glynos, D. Janus: Hierarchical Multi-Blockchain-Based Access Control (HMBAC) for Multi-Authority and Multi-Domain Environments. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 566. Malamas, V.; Palaiologos, G.; Kotzanikolaou, P.; Burmester, M.; Glynos, D. Janus: Hierarchical Multi-Blockchain-Based Access Control (HMBAC) for Multi-Authority and Multi-Domain Environments. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 566.

Abstract

Although there are several access control systems in the literature for flexible policy management in multi-authority and multi-domain environments, achieving interoperability & scalability, without relying on strong trust assumptions, is still an open challenge. We present HMBAC, a distributed fine-grained access control model for shared and dynamic multi-authority and multi-domain environments, along with Janus, a practical system for HMBAC policy enforcement. The proposed HMBAC model supports: (a) dynamic trust management between different authorities; (b) flexible access control policy enforcement, defined at domain and cross-domain level; (c) a global source of truth for all entities, supported by an immutable, audit-friendly mechanism. Janus implements the HMBAC model and relies on the effective fusion of two core components. First, a Hierarchical Multi-Blockchain architecture that acts as a single access point that cannot be bypassed by users or authorities. Second, a Multi-Authority Attribute Based Encryption protocol that supports flexible shared multi-owner encryption, where attribute keys from different authorities are combined to decrypt data distributedly stored in different authorities. Our approach was implemented using Hyperledger Fabric as the underlying blockchain, with the system components placed in Kubernetes Docker container pods. We experimentally validated the effectiveness and efficiency of Janus, while fully reproducible artifacts of both our implementation and our measurements are provided.

Keywords

Access control; Blockchain; Multi-Blockchain; Multi-Authority; Multi-Domain; Attribute-Based Encryption

Subject

Computer Science and Mathematics, Information Systems

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