Wireless-Delimited Secure Zones with Encrypted Attribute-Based Broadcast for Safe Firearms

TL;DR

This paper proposes a secure system for firearms using Attribute-Based Encryption to enforce policies within designated zones, enhancing safety through cyber-physical integration and privacy-preserving cryptography.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of Attribute-Based Encryption for secure firearm zones and a cyber-physical firearm model with context-aware safety advisories.

Findings

Secure zones effectively enforce policies via encrypted broadcasts

Cyber-physical firearm system enhances safety with sensor data

Proposed key management scheme supports secure attribute distribution

Abstract

This work presents an application of the highly expressive Attribute-Based Encryption to implement wireless-delimited Secure Zones for firearms. Within these zones, radio-transmitted local policies based on attributes of the consumer and the firearm are received by embedded hardware in the firearms, which then advises the consumer about safe operations. The Secure Zones utilize Attribute-Based Encryption to encode the policies and consumer or user attributes, and providing privacy and security through it cryptography. We describe a holistic approach to evolving the firearm to a cyber-physical system to aid in augmenting safety. We introduce a conceptual model for a firearm equipped with sensors and a context-aware software agent. Based on the information from the sensors, the agent can access the context and inform the consumer of potential unsafe operations. To support Secure Zones and the cyber-physical firearm model, we propose a Key Infrastructure Scheme for key generation, distribution, and management, and a Context-Aware Software Agent Framework for Firearms.