DSVN: A Flexible and Secure Data-Sharing Model for VANET Based on Blockchain

Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is an important part of the modern intelligent transportation system, which can provide vehicle communication at a certain distance. More importantly, VANET can provide route planning and autonomous driving for drivers by analyzing data. However, VANET’s data privacy and security are a huge challenge when serving drivers. In this paper, we propose a VANET data-sharing model (DSVN) that combines ciphertext-based attribute encryption (CP-ABE), blockchain, and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). DSVN uses an outsourced and revocable ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (ORCP-ABE) scheme, which is improved based on CP-ABE. ORCP-ABE uses key encryption key (KEK) trees to manage user attribute groups and revoke user-level attributes. It eliminates redundant attributes in the access policy by attribute-weighted access trees. Moreover, DSVN has no single point of failure. We demonstrate the indistinguishability under the chosen-plaintext attack (IND-CPA) security of DSVN by a game based on the computational Diffie–Hellman (CDH) assumption. Experimental results show that DSVN can store and share data with low overhead. Additionally, it can revoke attributes of users safely.