Controlling data disclosure in computational PIR protocols

Ning Shang*, Gabriel Ghinita, Yongbin Zhou, Elisa Bertino

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Private Information Retrieval (PIR) protocols allow users to learn data items stored at a server which is not fully trusted, without disclosing to the server the particular data element retrieved. Several PIR protocols have been proposed, which provide strong guarantees on user privacy. Nevertheless, in many application scenarios it is important to protect the database as well. In this paper, we investigate the amount of data disclosed by the the most prominent PIR protocols during a single run. We show that a malicious user can stage attacks that allow an excessive amount of data to be retrieved from the server. Furthermore, this vulnerability can be exploited even if the client follows the legitimate steps of the PIR protocol, hence the malicious request can not be detected and rejected by the server. We devise mechanisms that limit the PIR disclosure to a single data item.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security, ASIACCS 2010
Pages310-313
Number of pages4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes
Event5th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communication Security, ASIACCS 2010 - Beijing, China
Duration: 13 Apr 201016 Apr 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security, ASIACCS 2010

Conference

Conference5th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communication Security, ASIACCS 2010
Country/TerritoryChina
CityBeijing
Period13/04/1016/04/10

Keywords

  • data disclosure
  • oblivious transfer
  • private information retrieval

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