# NAC: Automating Access Control via Named Data

## TL;DR

NAC is a scheme for automating access control and data confidentiality in Named Data Networking by encrypting content and managing keys through naming conventions, supporting fine-grained policies and intermittent connectivity.

## Contribution

This paper introduces NAC, a novel approach that leverages NDN naming conventions for automated key management and access control, including support for Attribute-based Encryption.

## Key findings

- NAC effectively enforces fine-grained access control policies.
- NAC supports data confidentiality even with intermittent network connectivity.
- Extension to Attribute-based Encryption enhances flexibility and scalability.

## Abstract

In this paper we present the design of Name-based Access Control (NAC) scheme, which supports data confidentiality and access control in Named Data Networking (NDN) architecture by encrypting content at the time of production, and by automating the distribution of encryption and decryption keys. NAC achieves the above design goals by leveraging specially crafted NDN naming conventions to define and enforce access control policies, and to automate the cryptographic key management. The paper also explains how NDN's hierarchically structured namespace allows NAC to support fine-grained access control policies, and how NDN's Interest-Data exchange can help NAC to function in case of intermittent connectivity. Moreover, we show that NAC design can be further extended to support Attribute-based Encryption (ABE), which supports access control with additional levels of flexibility and scalability.