EncFS goes multi-user: Adding access control to an encrypted file system

Abstract

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Among the different existing cryptographic file systems, EncFS has a unique feature that makes it attractive for backup setups involving untrusted (cloud) storage. It is a file-based overlay file system in normal operation (i.e., it maintains a directory hierarchy by storing encrypted representations of files and folders in a specific source folder), but its reverse mode allows to reverse this process: Users can mount deterministic, encrypted views of their local, unencrypted files on the fly, allowing synchronization to untrusted storage using standard tools like rsync without having to store encrypted representations on the local hard drive. So far, EncFS is a single-user solution: All files of a folder are encrypted using the same, static key; file access rights are passed through to the encrypted representation, but not otherwise considered. In this paper, we work out how multi-user support can be integrated into EncFS and its reverse mode in particular. We present an extension that a) stores individual files' owner/group information and permissions in a confidential and authenticated manner, and b) cryptographically enforces thereby specified read rights. For this, we introduce user-specific keys and an appropriate, automatic key management. Given a user's key and a complete encrypted source directory, the extension allows access to exactly those files the user is authorized for according to the corresponding owner/group/permissions information. Just like EncFS, our extension depends only on symmetric cryptographic primitives.