Distributed, Uncertainty-Aware Access Control for Pervasive Computing

Urs Hengartner, Ge Zhong

Abstract: Access control to sensitive resources in pervasive computing needs to take uncertainty into account. Previous research has developed uncertainty-aware access-control models for environments that are managed by a centralized administrator. We demonstrate that environments managed in a distributed way require a more powerful model. Furthermore, we point out additional challenges that need to be considered when deploying uncertainty-aware access control, namely, identifying and authenticating both people and their intended actions, associating uncertainty with time, providing monotonicity, and defending against Sybil attacks. We present an access-control model that addresses these challenges and discuss a sample implementation