Blockchain Based Delegatable Access Control Scheme for a Collaborative E-Health Environment

Abstract

Modern electronic healthcare (e-health) settings constitute collaborative environments requiring sophisticated fine-grained access control mechanisms to cater their access demands. Access delegatability is quite crucial to realize fine-grained, flexible access control schemes compatible with such environments. In this paper, we addressed this issue through proposing an attribute based access control scheme integrated with controlled access delegation capabilities suitable for a multi-domain e-health environment. We have utilized the blockchain technology to manage attribute assignments, delegations as well as revocations. The scheme enables delegations in a controlled manner without jeopardizing the security of the system. The control is achieved via granting each delegating user the capability of controlling the subsequent delegations made by the delegatee as well as limiting the length of a chain of delegations. Furthermore, it is equipped with a superior attribute revocation mechanism and induces substantially lower key management overhead to the end-users in comparison to the existing access control schemes with delegatability.