Dual System Encryption via Predicate Encodings

We introduce the notion of predicate encodings, an information-theoretic primitive reminiscent of linear secret-sharing that in addition, satisfies a novel notion of reusability. Using this notion, we obtain a unifying framework for adaptively-secure public-index predicate encryption schemes for a large class of predicates. Our framework relies onWaters’ dual system encryption methodology (Crypto ’09), and encompass the identity-based encryption scheme of Lewko and Waters (TCC ’10), and the attribute-based encryption scheme of Lewko et al. (Eurocrypt ’10). In addition, we obtain several concrete improvements over prior works. Our work offers a novel interpretation of dual system encryption as a methodology for amplifying a one-time private-key primitive (i.e. predicate encodings) into a many-time public-key primitive (i.e. predicate encryption). ⋆ [email protected]. CNRS (UMR 8548) and INRIA. Part of this work was done at George Washington University, supported by NSF Awards CNS-1237429 and CNS-1319021.