An Improved ID-Based Data Storage Scheme for Fog-Enabled IoT Environments

In a fog-enabled IoT environment, a fog node is regarded as the proxy between end users and cloud servers to reduce the latency of data transmission, so as to fulfill the requirement of more real-time applications. A data storage scheme utilizing fog computing architecture allows a user to share cloud data with other users via the assistance of fog nodes. In particular, a fog node obtaining a re-encryption key of the data owner is able to convert a cloud ciphertext into the one which is decryptable by another designated user. In such a scheme, a proxy should not learn any information about the plaintext during the transmission and re-encryption processes. In 2020, an ID-based data storage scheme utilizing anonymous key generation in fog computing was proposed by some researchers. Although their protocol is provably secure in a proof model of random oracles, we will point out that there are some security flaws inherited in their protocol. On the basis of their work, we further present an improved variant, which not only eliminates their security weaknesses, but also preserves the functionalities of anonymous key generation and user revocation mechanism. Additionally, under the Decisional Bilinear Diffie–Hellman (DBDH) assumption, we demonstrate that our enhanced construction is also provably secure in the security notion of IND-PrID-CPA.