Pairing-Free Public Key Searchable Encryption Scheme Resilient to Frequency Analysis for IoT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64509/jicn.12.38Keywords:
Data security, Internet of Things, searchable public key encryption, frequency analysisAbstract
To enhance the searchability of encrypted cloud data while preserving user privacy, public-key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) has been regarded as a promising approach. However, existing schemes still incur substantial computational overhead in resource-constrained IoT environments. Moreover, IoT applications frequently reuse certain keywords during operations such as data labeling and status reporting, making them more susceptible to frequency-analysis attacks. To address this, this paper analyzes the limitations of existing pairing-free public-key authenticated encryption with keyword search (PAEKS) schemes in resisting frequency analysis and proposes a pairing-free PAEKS construction based on elliptic-curve scalar multiplication. A probabilistic trapdoor is further introduced to weaken the linkability between keywords and their occurrence frequencies. The proposed scheme effectively mitigates frequency-analysis attacks and, by eliminating costly bilinear pairings, significantly reduces computational burden. Experimental results show that, compared with conventional schemes, the proposed approach achieves lower runtime in ciphertext and trapdoor generation while providing stronger protection against frequency analysis, thereby attaining a more favorable security–efficiency trade-off suitable for IoT deployments with constrained computation and bandwidth.
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