On some cryptographic solutions for access control in a tree hierarchy

We consider the access control problem in a system where users and information items are classified into security classes organized as a rooted tree, with the most privileged security class at the root. In practice we expect such a tree to be quite broad and shallow. It is also inevitable that new security classes will need to be added as the needs of the organization evolve. We compare some cryptographic techniques which have been proposed in the literature for solution of this problem.

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