P2P-CBAC: Creation of a Coalition Based Access Control System Over a Peer-to-Peer Network Structure

摘要

The coming of the Information Age has heralded changes in all walks of life. Information is quickly becoming a commodity and its reliable and secure transmission a means to attain one's goal. The joint efforts of entities to collaborate through a combination of both information and physical resources though rarely results in a harmonious affect. Differences in technology, principals, and policy alone can quickly generate a level of overhead that no joint effort can warrant paying to achieve its goal. Coalition Based Access Control Systems are necessary to provide the medium for information and similar resources to be seamlessly shared in a multitude of potential environments. Limiting the generation of overhead communication and standardizing methods of communication is one goal for the coalition based access control system presented in this paper. It must be recognized that the needs of each coalition will be unique to that individual instance and as such it is unlikely that a single coalition system may be created to meet the needs of all possible coalitions. In this effort, the Peer-to-Peer Coalition Based Access Control System is designed to meet the needs of a specific type of coalition where trust among members is minimal, yet the requirement for security assurance is high. The proposed architecture attacks the problem of creating a coalition in a low trust environment by implementing the coalition system across a peer-to-peer network, thus removing the need for a central trusted authority to administer the system while placing the burden of security on the individual coalition member to maintain.