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A hidden vector encryption scheme (HVE) is a derivation of identity-based encryption, where the public key is actually a vector over a certain alphabet. The decryption key is also derived from such a vector, but this one is also allowed to have “⋆” (or wildcard) entries. Decryption is possible as long as these tuples agree on every position except where a “⋆” occurs.

These schemes are useful for a variety of applications: they can be used as a building block to construct attribute-based encryption schemes and sophisticated predicate encryption schemes (for e.g. range or subset queries). Another interesting application – and our main motivation – is to create searchable encryption schemes that support queries for keywords containing wildcards.

Here we construct a new HVE scheme, based on bilinear groups of prime order, which supports vectors over any alphabet. The resulting ciphertext …