Searchable Encryption Revisited: Consistency Properties, Relation to Anonymous IBE, and Extensions

We identify and fill some gaps with regard to consistency (the extent to which false positives are produced) for public-key encryption with keyword search (PEKS). We define computational and statistical relaxations of the existing notion of perfect consistency, show that the scheme of Boneh et al. (Advances in Cryptology—EUROCRYPT 2004, ed. by C. Cachin, J. Camenisch, pp. 506–522, 2004 ) is computationally consistent, and provide a new scheme that is statistically consistent. We also provide a transform of an anonymous identity-based encryption (IBE) scheme to a secure PEKS scheme that, unlike the previous one, guarantees consistency. Finally, we suggest three extensions of the basic notions considered here, namely anonymous hierarchical identity-based encryption, public-key encryption with temporary keyword search, and identity-based encryption with keyword search.