Secure and trustworthy file sharing over cloud storage using eID tokens

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multi-platform, open-source application that enhances the security and trustworthiness of cloud file sharing by integrating eID tokens for authentication and implementing mechanisms to prevent data loss or tampering.

Contribution

It presents a novel, provider-agnostic solution that combines eID-based authentication with data integrity and availability mechanisms for cloud storage.

Findings

Successfully tested on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Compatible with Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, SugarSync

Provides secure, trustworthy file sharing over cloud services

Abstract

This paper presents a multi-platform, open-source application that aims to protect data stored and shared in existing cloud storage services. The access to the cryptographic material used to protect data is implemented using the identification and authentication functionalities of national electronic identity (eID) tokens. All peer to peer dialogs to exchange cryptographic material is implemented using the cloud storage facilities. Furthermore, we have included a set of mechanisms to prevent files from being permanently lost or damaged due to concurrent modification, deletion and malicious tampering. We have implemented a prototype in Java that is agnostic relatively to cloud storage providers; it only manages local folders, one of them being the local image of a cloud folder. We have successfully tested our prototype in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, with Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and SugarSync.