Towards efficient verifiable multi-keyword search over encrypted data based on blockchain

Abstract

Searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) provides an effective way to search encrypted data stored on untrusted servers. When the server is not trusted, it is indispensable to verify the results returned by it. However, the existing SSE schemes either lack fairness in the verification of search results, or do not support the verification of multiple keywords. To address this, we designed a multi-keyword verifiable searchable symmetric encryption scheme based on blockchain, which provides an efficient multi-keyword search and fair verification of search results. We utilized bitmap to build a search index in order to improve search efficiency, and used blockchain to ensure fair verification of search results. The bitmap and hash function are combined to realize lightweight multi-keyword search result verification, compared with the existing verification schemes using public key cryptography primitives, our scheme reduces the verification time and improves the verification efficiency. In addition, our scheme supports the dynamic update of files and realizes the forward security in update. Finally, formal security analysis proves that our scheme is secure against Chosen-Keyword Attacks (CKA), experimental analysis demonstrations that our scheme is efficient and viable in practice.

Keywords

• Symmetric searchable encryption
• Multi-keyword search
• Result verification
• Blockchain