Symmetric searchable encryption with efficient range query using multi-layered linked chains

Abstract

Searchable encryption is an encryption system which provides confidentiality of stored documents and usability of document search at the same time. Remote cloud storage is the most typical application for searchable encryption. By applying searchable encryption, inside attacks can be prevented fundamentally. Designing searchable encryption which supports various queries--for example, range query, conjunctive keyword query, etc.--is also important for convenience. In this paper, we focus on range query problem. Up to now, only a few results have been proposed, in which the main functions are constructed using public key cryptosystems. Therefore, the amount of computations for encryption and search is large. Furthermore, search time depends on the size of the entire database. We propose a new searchable encryption protocol which is based on a symmetric key encryption and linked chain structure instead of public key-based techniques. The main contribution of the protocol is reducing the computation cost for search remarkably. In reality, the amount of computations depends on the number of documents that are matched to a query instead of the size of the entire database.