A Blockchain-Based and SGX-Enabled Access Control Framework for IoT

Abstract

With the rapid development of physical networks, tens of billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been deployed worldwide. Access control is essential in the IoT system, which manages user access to vital IoT data. However, access control for the IoT is mainly based on centralized trusted servers, which face problems such as a single point of failure and data leakage. To tackle these challenges, we propose an access control framework for the IoT by combining blockchain and Intel software guard extension (SGX) technology. A blockchain validates both IoT devices and edge servers added to the network. The access control contract is deployed on the blockchain, which can manage attribute-based access control policies in a fine-grained manner and make access control decisions flexibly. SGX technology is introduced into the edge computing server to realize the confidentiality of data processing. Finally, we implemented the prototype of the framework on Quorum and conducted extensive experiments and theoretical analyses on the performance of the blockchain. The results of the experimental tests and theoretical analyses show that our framework has more advantages in computing costs and on-chain storage costs.