2023 Zhonghua

The Journal of Supercomputing
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-023-05517-4
Smart contracts attribute‑based access control model

for security & privacy of IoT system using blockchain
and edge computing
Chen Zhonghua1,2 · S. B. Goyal2 · Anand Singh Rajawat3
Accepted: 22 June 2023

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
2023
Abstract
In order to solve the problem of data security and management between IoT edge
nodes and massive heterogeneous devices, combined with the wide application of
blockchain technology in distributed system data security management, a block-
chain-based Internet of Things access control model (SC-ABAC) is proposed by
combining smart contracts and attribute-based access control. The traditional con-
sensus algorithm PoW (Proof of Work) and SC-ABAC access control manage-
ment process are optimized. By quantitative analysis, the time to call contracts in
the query process increases linearly, the time of the policy addition and judgment
process is constant, and the energy consumption of the optimized consensus mecha-
nism is smaller than that of the PoW unit. This model provides decentralized, fine-
grained, and dynamic access control management in IoT environments, enabling dis-
tributed systems to reach consensus faster and ensure data consistency.
Keywords Blockchain · Internet of things · Smart contract · SC-ABAC
* S. B. Goyal
[email protected]
Chen Zhonghua
[email protected]
Anand Singh Rajawat
[email protected]
1
BaiCheng Normal University, Baicheng 13700, Jilin, China
2
Faculty of Information Technology, City University, 46100 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
3
School of Computer Science & Engineering, Sandip University, Nashik, Maharashtra, India
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1 Introduction
Industry 4.0 is a term that was made up to describe how quickly technological,
industrial, and social patterns and processes are changing in the twenty-first century.
One trend that has come up during this stage of industrial growth is the mixing of
technologies that blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds.
Artificial intelligence, gene editing, and advanced robots are all examples of these
kinds of technologies. Modern smart technology, M2M communication, and the
Internet of Things are making it possible to automate more and more of the tradi-
tional production and industrial processes. This is causing big changes in the global
production and supply network. When these technologies are used together, there
are more automation, better communication and self-monitoring, and smart equip-
ment that can evaluate and diagnose problems on its own.
With the increasing popularity of IoT technology, access to large devices creates
a heterogeneous environment, which generates large amounts of data for processing
in a short period and at the same time is transmitted to the data center through the
network. Network latency is inevitable [1]. Edge computing provides a new idea for
solving the problem of high delays in the process of huge data transmission of IoT
devices [2]. The existence of edge nodes in IoT systems increases system comput-
ing power and reduces latency but also brings new security risks. When the newly
accessed edge node is malicious, it can decrypt and obtain the user privacy data
in the data center by computing in parallel with other edge nodes. Therefore, the
access control problem for IoT systems with edge nodes has become a new research
hotspot.
Blockchain technology has been increasingly used in distributed IoT systems to
provide security and privacy [3]. Complex attribute management, using too many
resources, delay problems caused by blockchain, security risks caused by edge com-
puting, and the need for effective consensus methods are just some of the problems
it must solve. It ensures data are tamper evident while guaranteeing distributed data
storage, which makes it particularly suitable for storing and protecting important
private data, reducing the risk of leaking users’ personal private data or losing large
amounts of data due to attacks on IoT devices in data centers. The introduction of
smart contracts in Blockchain 3.0 makes it possible to solve the access control prob-
lem through blockchain technology with new possibilities [4].
Much of the current research to address IoT security issues under edge computing
integrated with blockchain is based on privacy security and data security aspects,
and no further research has been done on the access control issue of IoT edge nodes
[5–8]. For example, (Nyamtiga 2018) only address the problem of data anonym-
ity and integrity in IoT systems with integrated edge computing and use blockchain
technology to achieve secure storage of IoT data. [9] face the problem of large-scale
data transmission and storage under industrial IoT, and edge computing processes
the source data and then blockchain to achieve secure storage and management of
data.
Currently, Internet of Things (IoT) data access and control research is only
done in the context of blockchain technology. (Jinshan Shi et al. 2020) proposed
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Smart contracts attribute‑based access control model for…
a blockchain-based IoT access control framework; (Siyuan Wang et al. 2021) pro-
posed a blockchain-based power token ring to address IoT transgression access;
[10] proposed a blockchain-based role access control model to address IoT trans-
gression access. (Siyuan Wang, 2020) offered a power token based on the block-
chain. Researchers [11] suggested an IoT data management architecture based on
blockchain and edge computing to keep data safe. Their job was to combine edge
computing with blockchain technology.
Building on the already established architecture for traditional integrated
blockchain and edge computing, a new access control model for Internet of
Things (IoT) systems with edge computing has been presented [3] as a possible
solution to the problems mentioned above.
Xue et al. (2022) proposed a general architecture for the integration of blockchain
and edge computing systems and studied how blockchain can be used to benefit edge
computing and how edge computing can be used to benefit blockchain.
The above researchers have ignored the potential risks of edge nodes, assum-
ing that the existing edge nodes are safe and reliable, but ignoring the expan-
sion of the scale of the Internet of Things, edge nodes should be confirmed by a
trusted mechanism when accessing the Internet of Things, and also ignoring the
powerful computing power brought by edge computing, that is, under the current
new paradigm of the Internet of Things system integrating edge computing. The
role of edge nodes in the access control process is not considered.
To solve these problems, based on the existing traditional integrated blockchain
and edge computing architecture, an access control model for the Internet of Things
system containing edge computing is proposed. Specifically, the three-layer access
control architecture of the Internet of Things is designed on the basis of the three-
layer architecture of the Internet of Things. On the basis of the attribute-based access
control mechanism, the smart contract in the blockchain is responsible for access
control decisions, while the edge node is responsible for encryption, decryption,
and data transmission, and the "SC-ABAC" access control model is proposed. To
achieve effective access control and management of IoT. Finally, the experimental
results show that the time consumed for continuous block access increases linearly
with the number of accesses, the CPU utilization is stable, and the security is good.
Three contributions of this paper for a study on a Smart Contracts Attribute-
Based Access Control Model for Security & Privacy of IoT System using block-
chain and edge computing include:
1. First, design and use a smart contract-based access control mechanism. This
method makes IoT devices and infrastructure safe. The approach would determine
access based on roles, responsibilities, and IoT system links.
2. Integrate blockchain for security and privacy: The second purpose may be to
integrate blockchain technology into attribute-based access control architecture.
Blockchain may record access transactions securely and transparently. Blockchain
may improve IoT security and privacy, according to the study.
3. Edge computing speeds data processing. Third, edge computing could speed up
IoT data processing. Edge computing accelerates data processing near the source.
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Edge computing and blockchain-based access control should be considered for

safe, fast, and reliable IoT systems.
This research work is organized in the following manner: Section 2 presents a

Preliminaries. In Section 3, we outline the method employed and describe the design
of the IoT Access Control Architecture that integrates edge computing. Section 4
details the methodology used to identify the applicability of blockchain to our use
case. Section 5 is dedicated to presenting the results of our study and a discussion of
these findings. In Section 6, we engage in a discussion on the related work, compar-
ing it with our findings. Finally, Section 7 offers the conclusion and outlines direc-
tions for future research.
2 Preliminaries
2.1 Basic concepts of access control policies
In an IoT system, access control is the authentication and control of users’ legiti-
mate use of resources, which literally means controlling access to certain resources
in accordance with the relevant authorization, to prevent unauthorized access or
improper use of certain illegal users. Users ensure that the entire system resource
can be used rationally and properly. The IoT application system is a multi-user
and multi-task working environment that opens the door to illicit use of system
resources, so it is imperative to take effective security precautions for the computer
and its network system to prevent unauthorized users from entering. Illegal use of
system resources by the system and legitimate users. This requires the use of access
control systems [12].
2.2 Types of access control
When access control is set up right, it can stop hackers from getting sensitive infor-
mation and stop authorized users from misusing system resources. Autonomous
access control and mandatory access control are two methods that are often used in
traditional security settings. Access control methods like object-based access con-
trol, task-based access control, role-based access control, and attribute-based access
control have come about because of the rise of distributed application environments.
1. DAC (discretionary access control).
This means that people own the things (files, databases, etc.) they make and can
choose who has access to them.
2. MAC (mandatory access control).
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It refers to the unified binding control by the system of user-created objects (spe-
cifically set up by the system security authority), to determine by defining rules which
users can access which objects for which operating system type, regardless of the crea-
tor user, whose object creation cannot have the right to access the object.
3. OBAC (object-based access control).
Object-based access control systems are made up of control policies and control
rules, which are the main building blocks. When using a model based on controlled
objects, rights are given to specific people, groups, or roles, and the access control list
is linked to either the controlled object or its properties.
4. TABC (task-based access control).
Task-based access control builds security models and puts security measures based
on the tasks being done in place. It also lets security be managed in real time in a flex-
ible and adaptable way. Task-based access control can be used to solve security prob-
lems at both the application level and the network level.
5. RBAC (role-based access control).
It is to assign the right of access permission to certain roles, and the user gains
access to ownership of the role by playing various roles. This is because, in many prac-
tical applications, the user does not own the object information resources that can be
accessed (this information belongs to the enterprise or company). Access control is
determined by the role each user plays in the department and consists of three main
features: user, roles, and permissions, as shown in Fig 1.
The principle of RBAC access is shown in Fig. 2, where the mapping of roles and
permissions is the core of RBAC, and a group of roles is assigned a scope to obtain
the corresponding permissions during actual use. RBAC consists of five major ele-
ments: user table U, role table R, permission P, permission configuration (R, P), and
user authorization (U, R).
ABAC mainly includes three entities: subject, resource, and environment, as shown
in Fig. 3. Subject attributes include static attributes such as role, identity, age, etc.
Resource attributes mainly include metadata describing resources, and environment
attributes include contextual attributes describing the access process.
The ABAC can update the access control decision according to the modification
of the related entity attributes, thus providing a more sophisticated and flexible access
control method, and the access flow is shown in Fig 4.
Fig. 1 Attributes of RBAC
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Fig. 2 Principle of RBAC
Fig. 3 Subject of ABAC
Fig. 4 Access process of ABAC
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A policy enforcement point, or PEP, is a device that is physically connected to a

protected resource and blocks access requests, starts the decision-making process,
and applies the right results by reading information to allow or deny access.
PAP (policy administration point): It is the component responsible for the man-
agement of the access control policy.
AA, which stands for "Attribute Authority," is a part that controls who has access
to what subject, resource, or environmental quality and how that quality can be
changed.
A policy decision point, or PDP, is a central location that gets policies, access
requests, and information about attribute values.
2.3 Blockchain and IoT: an overview
Blockchain technology brings about a big change in the way things are done. In
just a few short years, reliable human systems that are run from one place will be
replaced by networks that are spread out. The process of change has already begun.
Between 2016 and 2022, the market for IoT technology is expected to grow at a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.4%. In 2015, there were 10 billion
devices that could connect to the internet. By 2020, there will be 34 billion. The
distributed ledger, which is what the blockchain is, will be the system’s backbone.
The trust protocol that blockchain technology [13] offers is starting to become
clearer, as is the fact that blockchain technology is real. Because of this, financial
experts and governments around the world are thinking about how it could be used
in large-scale solutions and what benefits it could bring if it were to be used. Even
though there are signs of progress, there are still problems.
For example, a few questions come to mind when I think about all the different
ways it can be used. One of these problems is figuring out how to manage hybrid
cloud and edge IoT Blockchain AI systems in a way that is both effective and safe.
This is a big problem, especially since only 30% of companies think they are ready
to deal with the challenges that security holes in the Internet of Things pose. Attacks
on the Internet of Things could lead to some parts of the building, like the lights and
door locks, being taken over. In addition to stealing data, hackers may also be able
to find out who certain people are and try to harm them. When it comes to providing
services, there is a chance that medical devices like pacemakers could be attacked
as part of an attack on the Internet of Things attacks on the Internet of Things (IoT)
[14]. The problem of how to protect devices that are connected to the Internet of
Things might be solved by blockchain technology. In the future, both may be put
into a single place, but first, there are some technological problems that need to be
solved. Using this would be a good idea because blockchain makes it possible to
build a very high level of trust by using a decentralized database. This deep sense of
self-confidence can be found everywhere.is not taken into account. Edge computing
also gives a lot of powerful computer power, which is also Even though the default
presence of edge nodes is safe and secure and should be confirmed by trusted mech-
anisms as the IoT grows, the role of edge nodes in the access control process is not
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taken into account in the current paradigm of the IoT system with integrated edge
computing. This is because the role of edge nodes is not taken into account.
2.4 Related work discussions
The literature [15] integrates edge computing and blockchain technology to solve the
data security problem in IoT architecture, but only the conceptual design of the solu-
tion is given without experiments to support it. The literature [7] also integrates edge
computing and blockchain technology and uses blockchain technology and bloom
filter [16] to solve the authentication of devices and access control of data in indus-
trial IoT, but again, no experimental results are given in the experimental part. The
literature [10, 15, 17–20] only considered the use of blockchain technology in their
research on IoT access control, including the proposed access control framework,
the use of access tokens or the design of better access control policies, but did not
consider the indispensability of edge nodes in the current scale of IoT [14, 21–25].
Therefore, the existence of edge nodes and the integration of edge computing with
blockchain were not considered in the access control research on IoT impact on exist-
ing IoT access control research. For relevant comparative content, see Table 1.
3 Method
The methodology includes three main steps: IoT Access Control Architecture
Design for Integrated Edge Computing; flow chart of SC-ABAC-based smart con-
tract implementation; processing control flow chart of specific device access data.
The details are shown in Fig 5.
3.1 IoT access control architecture design for integrated edge computing
This article talks about a proposed access control model for IoT systems that use edge
computing. This model is based on the common architecture for integrating block-
chain and edge computing that is used right now. We suggest the "SC-ABAC" access
control model and design a three-layer access control architecture for IoT based on
the three-layer IoT architecture. With the attribute-based access control mechanism,
the smart contract in the blockchain decides who can get in and who can’t. The edge
nodes are in charge of encryption, decryption, and data transmission. Our goal is to
get access control and management of IoT to work well. The IoT access control model
that uses edge computing is made up of three modules: a module for managing IoT
devices, a module for controlling who can use those devices, and a module for manag-
ing the data that those devices collect. Figure 6 shows the finished plans for the model.
Incorporating a module for managing IoT devices is the first step in designing an
IoT access control framework for integrated edge computing. This part is in charge
of making sure that Internet of Things devices are registered, authenticated, and set
up/monitored. Then, the part that controls how Internet of Things devices can be
used is set up. This makes use of the Blockchain’s Attribute-Based Access Control
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Table 1 Comparison of related research work
Author Algorithm Advantages Limitations
[26] No The cloud layer, the edge layer, and the device layer made up the frame- Conceptual designs that only give solutions without experiments to sup-
work port them
[7] Yes Adapting to the IoT necessitates a method that combines access control No experimental results are given in the experimental section
and identity management, which is where blockchain technology and
edge computing come in
[27] Yes Proposed access control framework Failure to take into account the edge node’s indispensability at the scale of
the Internet
[28] Yes Access control policy using access tokens In access control studies for IoT The presence of edge nodes is not taken
into account
[19] Yes Design Better access control policies Research on access control of existing IoT without involving edge comput-
ing and blockchain integration
[11] Yes Access control is used in the access control list approach There are problems such as low access control efforts
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Fig. 5 System process flow of methodology
Fig. 6 IoT Access Control Architecture Design for Integrated Edge Computing
Model for Smart Contracts. IoT devices’ features are put into smart contracts, which
are contracts whose terms are written straight into code and which run themselves.
They are a safe and foolproof way to allow, check, and enforce the negotiation or
performance of an agreement. As IoT devices talk to each other, the access control
module uses these smart contracts to allow or deny entry based on qualities and
conditions that have already been set. The last part is the data handling part of the
Internet of Things. Data from IoT devices can be saved, processed, and retrieved in a
safe way. This part makes it easier to process data at the network’s "edge," which is
the part that is directly closest to where the data came from. Together, the changes to
security and privacy, as well as the decreases in delay and bandwidth use, make the
system run at its best.
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3.1.1 IoT device management module
The IoT device management module manages the access of various IoT heterogeneous
devices, pre-processes the collected data by parsing different protocols in the network,
packages them into a unified format and applies them to the IoT device access control
module for access to the system, and then sends the data to the edge gateway nodes.
3.1.2 IoT device access control module
The IoT device access control module integrates edge computing and blockchain
and is the core module of the framework used to understand the fine-grained access
control management of devices.
The edge gateway node processing module is a device with certain computing
power and is in the middle layer of the network (e.g., smartphones, smart gateways,
etc.). The main functions include:
1. encrypting device information;

2. decrypting data information;
3. verifying device privileges;
4. dynamically changing device privileges;
5. pre-processing data;
6. data forwarding and acquisition.
The device can only obtain or send the corresponding data through the edge gateway
node based on its own authority after the identity confirmation of the edge gateway node.
The blockchain access control module is an integral part of the access control
module, providing a variety of access control mechanisms for IoT systems on a vari-
ety of occasions through programmable smart contract. It supports dynamic power
allocation of devices to achieve micro-access control of data by devices. The main
functions include:
1. access control decision execution;

2. device identity confirmation;
3. device permission assignment.
The local device data storage module is used to interact with edge gateway nodes,
store pre-processed data, and send them to the application service module for users
to view in real time when needed.
The application service module is the upper layer data transmission interface for
users to visualize the data. By acquiring local data and final processed data from
edge gateway nodes and cloud terminal nodes, the data accuracy is improved while
ensuring timeliness.
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3.1.3 IoT device data management module
The IoT device data management module stores:
1. pre-processed data from the edge gateway module after processing by the cloud
terminal for viewing when necessary.
2. device information in the blockchain module is broadcast by the edge gateway
module to reduce the frame risk.
3.2 Smart contract‑based attribute‑based access control model
The attribute-based access control model (ABAC) has an access structure that
includes a subject, object, operation, and environment [26]. It determines whether
the subject has access to the appropriate features in the corresponding environment
in the operation of the object by which the subject is given access.
3.2.1 SC‑ABAC
In the IoT environment, since attributes are inherent to each subject, object, opera-
tion, and environment, associating attributes of each device and resource with access
rights makes the ABAC model suitable for managing simple devices and extensive
data in the IoT. However, for dynamic access management of heterogeneous devices,
ABAC uses an attribute discovery mechanism and does not assign precise and
appropriate permissions to the accessed devices by { attribute, permission }. This
limits the normal access and real-time processing of data by heterogeneous devices,
which poses a challenge for scenarios where edge nodes exist.
Therefore, in this paper, we propose an ABAC-based access control model "SC-
ABAC" for dynamic access to heterogeneous devices, in which ABAC combines
smart contract with ABAC to allocate resources and nodes by permissions and
ensure proper implementation of the corresponding operation on smart contract.
In SC-ABAC, subject and object are treated as the same object, because each device
in IoT can be an object providing resources to other devices or accessing resources
from other devices as a subject. Each IoT device needs to register information with the
blockchain through the edge server when it first accesses and obtains the correspond-
ing authority through its inherent attributes; for the security of the device itself, the
authority is bound with the public key obtained based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography
(ECC) and encrypted with the private key during subsequent access and data transmis-
sion. The judgment of attributes is implemented based on smart contract, and each
access request and judgment result are stored in the blockchain for synchronization.
3.2.2 Smart contract design based on SC‑ABAC
Smart contract is a man-written program script that directly controls the data
within the blockchain and is implemented by multiple users within the blockchain
to control the behavior of transactions even without a third party. Smart contract
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may use calls to a custom function to execute related commands: for example,
requesting access to a specific node or returning results.
Based on SC-ABAC, this paper designs a Manager Contract (MC) { address, attrib-
ute, permission }, Judgment Contract (JC) { number, subject, subject permission,
resource, resource permission, result, time}, Punish Contract (PC) {number, JC result,
result, time }, and Access Control Contract (PC) {number, JC result, result, time}.
(1) MC is used to manage the related policies, the subject is the access initiator,
replaced by the corresponding MAC address, the attributes are the inherent
characteristics of the object, the permission is the actionable behavior described
by the value, and the permission is raised to read, write, manage, etc. in order.
Among the custom functions are:
ManageAdd(): used to add the permission information of an object.

ManageUpdate(): used to update the permission information of an object.
ManageDelete(): used to delete the permission information of an object.
QueryData(Hash): used to obtain information about an object by Hash.
(2) JC is used to determine the application of an object to operate on a resource,

by comparing the subject permissions and resource permissions to derive the
results, including allowing all operations, read and write, readable and illegal
access. Among the custom functions are:
JudgeFromMC() is used to get the permission information of the object from

MC.
JudgeToPC() is used to send the result of the judgment to the PC.
JudgeToACC() is used to send the result of the judgment to the PC.
(3) The PC is used to process the results sent by JC, such as implementing a penalty
mechanism for devices that access the overstepped data or providing a reward
mechanism for devices that access and send data normally to assign dynamic
permissions. Among the custom functions are:
PublishToACC() is used to send penalty results to ACC.
(4) ACC is used to realize the final access control of devices and resources, return
the judgment result to the subject through JC result, and operate the function of
the subject and resources to MC through PC result.
ACCAnswer() returns JC result to the subject to complete the access control of

resources;
ACCSetMC() calls the function in MC to modify the object permission through
the result of JC.
The specific flow of the blockchain-based access control management mechanism
is shown in Fig 7.
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3.3 SC‑ABAC‑based inter‑device access control process design
This section will introduce in detail the blockchain and edge computation-based IoT
access control process implemented in the above, as shown in Fig. 8, taking a device
A accessing an edge server to send an access request to a resource B as an example;
its access control process includes system initialization phase, registration phase,
access phase, and authorization phase.
3.3.1 System initialization phase
The relevant nodes at the edge of the network by default are all edge nodes, includ-
ing Edge Gateways and Edge Servers. The edge node (En) needs to calculate its own
public and private keys based on the ECC algorithm first. The details are as follows:
En selects two non-negative integers a, b less than p among p elements (p is a
prime number) to obtain the elliptic curve Ep(a, b) and then selects a point p of order
n on the elliptic curve such that the number multiplied by n ∗ p = 0.
En randomly selects a number from positive integers smaller than n as his private
key PKEn, obtains the public key PKEn according to PKEn ∗ p, and discloses the fol-
lowing information after calculating the hash of the physical address (Media Access
Control Address, MAC) from the following Eq. (1): {PKEn,Ep (a, b), P, p, Hash}.
Hash = SHA256(MAC, P(x), P(y)) (1)
Blockchain creates Genesis blocks and stores En information, attributes, and
permissions.
Fig. 7 Flow chart of SC-ABAC based smart contract implementation
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Fig. 8 Processing control flow chart of specific device access data
3.3.2 Registration phase
1) En calculates the ECC key pair and the hash value of each access device, assigns the
specific attributes of the device such as sensing, sending and receiving data, ana-
lyzing, controlled, etc., assigns permissions based on the attributes, and sends the
information of the device {registration ID, device public key pkIoT, device attributes,
device permissions, device MAC address, Hash} to the blockchain for storage.
2) En stores the private key pkIoT of the device in the local data, which is only viewed
by the edge gateway.
3) Blockchain invokes smart contract to store device information one by one.
3.3.3 Access phase
1) The device generates a random prime number r(r < n), generates a random key
pair(r, R(x, y)) by the ECC algorithm, and encrypts the sent data M with a digital
signature based on secp256k1 Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (CDSA),
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and the specific signature process is shown in Algorithm 1. By the analysis of the
algorithm, the time complexity of the algorithm is O(log n).
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2) En receives the data M from the device when it is accessed and applies the public
key pK IoT to the blockchain for signature and decryption verification, as shown
in Algorithm 2. By the analysis of the algorithm, the time complexity of the
algorithm is O(n).
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2) En decrypts the data M, obtains the hash address value of the device and the
data requested for access, sends a message to the data storage center to obtain the
hash address value of the data, and sends it to the blockchain.
3.3.4 Authorization Stage
(1) The management contract (MC) obtains the corresponding permission from the
decrypted hash value and sends it to the judgment contract (JC).
(2) JC compares the device permission and data permission size, determines
whether it can be read/written or illegal operation according to the result, and
sends it to the Access Control Contract (ACC) and the Punishment Contract
(PC).
(3) PC decides to implement a penalty or reward mechanism for the device based
on the result of JC and sends the result to ACC.
(4) ACC sends the query result of access control to En based on the result of JC, and
according to the result of PC, MC raises or lowers the authority of this device,
or removes this device in the device table.
3.3.5 Optimization of PoW consensus algorithm
Considering that the traditional PoW consensus algorithm combines the previ-
ous block hash value, the transaction data of this block, the timestamp, and the
random number nNonce in the block together to calculate the corresponding hash
value by SHA256 algorithm, the self-addition of nNonce is used to get the final
hash value is obtained by self-addition of nNonce to the first nBits of 0. Since
the hash value varies greatly each time, it takes too much time to get a hash that
matches the first nBits of 0. Therefore, in this paper, we consider a random seri-
alization operation for the random number nNonce, change the initial value to
a random number, and make a judgment when calculating the Hash value each
time, if the first bit of the obtained Hash value is 0, the possibility of getting 0 for
the first nBits of nNonce after self-addition is small, so nNonce is set as a random
number; and if the first bit is not 0, then nNonce is set as a random number on
the if the first bit is not 0, nNonce is self-added to the existing base. The specific
algorithm is as follows. By the analysis of the algorithm, the time complexity of
the algorithm is O (log n).
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4 Methodology to identify applicability of blockchain to a use case
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were the first places where blockchain tech-
nology was used in a way that worked. Later, smart contract platforms like
Ethereum, which make it possible for the public to own assets and apps that use
smart contracts, were found to be useful. The goal of all information stored on
blockchains is to make sure it can’t be changed and is shared forever.
Enterprise blockchains were made much later. They were inspired by the
decentralized nature of public blockchains, but they have very different require-
ments. A lot of research has been done on how blockchain technology could
be used to solve big problems in the business world. Business collaboration
is already hard at work in the corporate blockchains that are now being built.
Companies that work together came to agreements that led to these blockchains.
Because of this, enterprise blockchains only need a small amount of decentrali-
zation to work well. Enterprise blockchains can do more than just settle money
or tokens. They can be used for a wide range of other things as well. Some of
these uses are verifying events and managing assets, contracts, identities, and
other types of specialized data. When a company’s blockchain is too centralized,
it loses some of its usefulness. This is because there would only be a small num-
ber of trusted entities in the ecosystem, and all of the industrial partners depend
on those entities. Even though Bitcoin’s distributed ledger technology has a lot
of possible uses, its usefulness is reduced when a company’s blockchain is too
centralized. Because of this, the easiest and most practical thing to do would be
to use a central database that would be run by the same group. In the next section,
we’ll talk about when and why a blockchain might be useful and important for a
business setting. Some of these conditions are: The solutions offered by block-
chain technology may be able to cause big changes in many different industries
because they are decentralized and open. Using blockchain technology instead
of more traditional methods, on the other hand, can be a risky, time-consuming,
and expensive endeavor. This means that companies in every industry will have
to weigh the pros and cons of using blockchain technology versus more tradi-
tional methods of either centralization or decentralization. To come up with a
methodical way to figure out if blockchain technology is a good solution or not,
we started by doing a deep analysis of a wide range of real business problems
and reading the relevant scientific literature. This gave us a place to start with
our investigation, so we could move forward. In academic research, a model was
made to figure out if blockchain technology can be used for collaborative product
modification. did research on different ways that blockchain technology could be
used.
13
5 Results and discussion
5.1 Experimental setup
5.1.1 Experimental environment setup
The experiment was conducted on a personal computer (PC) running Windows 11

Professional i5-10,210 2. 10 GHz 16G running memory and three CC2530s (8051
CPU, 8 KB running memory) with a temperature and humidity sensor DHT11 mod-
ule, block chained by Node.Js version 10.16.0, are implemented. By using three
CC2530s as IoT devices, the acquired temperature and humidity data are stored in
the PC as IoT data, and the PC is used as an edge node to achieve secure access to
the devices and data based on SC-ABAC. The host configuration is shown in Fig. 9.
5.1.2 Access control policy design
Two groups of access control policies are designed in this experiment, including
device type and operation permission. For device type, where administrator M0
manages cloud C1, edge node E2, and terminal device D3, the sub-device of cloud
is smart gateway G4, the sub-device of edge node and the terminal device are the
underlying IoT device d5 ~ d7, and the IoT device manages data D8; the operation
permission includes four operations of data creation, update, read, and delete, as
shown in Fig. 10.
5.2 Security analysis
In the security analysis for the SC-ABAC model, this paper assumes that there is a
risk of data leakage in the end device, while there are malicious users in the edge
device En, bad service providers in the storage node, and malicious attackers in the
network. Internet of Things devices are vulnerable to network attacks. The distrib-
uted architecture of edge computing naturally has the characteristics of resisting
such attacks and has higher reliability and fault tolerance.
5.2.1 Risk of data leakage for terminal devices
SC-ABAC encrypts the data uploaded by terminal devices and the corresponding
authority information on the transaction side and stores them in DataHash. The
original data are transferred to the data center for storage. The original data are
Fig. 9 Configuration of the host
13
C. Zhonghua et al.
Fig. 10 Design of access control policies
transferred to the data center for storage, and access to the data requires En to have
the corresponding DataHash. Only when the device gets the correct DataHash and
has the corresponding permission will the original data be returned. The data trans-
fer is in P2P (Point-to-Point) mode, and there is no third-party capture. The original
data can be there is no malicious modification of the storage node.
5.2.2 Targeting malicious users in edge devices
SC-ABAC generates a corresponding HashID for all access En with MAC to store
and ensure the corresponding ID is unique when adding devices each time, while
access En has different read and write permissions for different devices based on
function, and there is a corresponding penalty mechanism for each override, which
can effectively reduce the survival time of malicious users in the network.
5.2.3 Targeting malicious users in edge devices
The data of SC-ABAC are stored in the storage node in the form of a smart con-
tract, and the upload, access, and expiration of the original data are recorded in a
time-stamped chain structure, and the information is recorded synchronously by the
whole node, so the illegal access to the storage node can be traced and cannot be
tampered with.
5.2.4 Against malicious nodes in the network
SC-ABAC manages terminal devices with relatively weak performance as En agents.

Terminal devices do not touch the external network, while En, as an edge device,
has a high-security protection capability and can resist external malicious totals, and
qualitative analysis can improve the security protection capability of the system. The
storage node is then assumed by En with the strongest protection capability.
13
Fig. 11 Time consumption with different number of visits
Fig. 12 CPU Utilization for Continuous Access Processes
5.3 Blockchain system testing
5.3.1 Performance testing of the blockchain system
After the security analysis of the model, this paper detects the performance of this
blockchain system by setting different numbers of accesses of the subject to the
object. The performance is determined by setting a high concurrency of consecutive
accesses, and the CPU utilization of the access process is viewed by the resource
monitor and task manager.
Figure 11 shows the access time consumed for a total of 500 consecutive accesses
to different data for different subjects, corresponding to the average consumption for
every 10 accesses. It can be seen that as the number of accesses increases, the time
spent on each access increases linearly, and the average time spent on each access
at the 500th access is about 1.3 s. This is because the access records are stored in
the blockchain at the end of each access, which increases the access query data each
time, thus causing the access time to increase linearly with the increase in the num-
ber of accesses.
Figure 12 shows the CPU utilization in the continuous access process, and it can
be seen that the CPU utilization is about 20% on average during the access process,
indicating that the access process of this system is relatively stable in terms of CPU
usage.
13
C. Zhonghua et al.
5.3.2 System security testing
In this paper, the system uses the PoW consensus mechanism for blockchain gen-
eration, so the security test of blockchain means the test of the consensus mecha-
nism. In this paper, the PoW security analysis case proposed in the literature [3]
(Yen 2019) is used, and the block creation between honest nodes and attackers is
described by a binomial random process.
An attack is considered successful only if the attacker’s block creation rate
is greater than the block generation rate of all honest nodes in the chain. Thus,
assume that the attacker creates the next block with probability q, the honest node
creates the next block with probability p, and the blockchain is caught up by the
attacker starting from block z. Then, the probability of the attacker catching up to
the true block length is shown in Eq. (2).
{
( 1,)pz ≤ q
(2)
z
q = q∕ , p > q
p
And the number of blocks that determine success for the attacker can be
viewed as a Poisson distribution with the expectation value as in equation (3).
q
𝜆=z∗
p (3)
Multiply it with equation (2), that is, the attacker can exceed the real block
length of the honest node under the length of the block created during the attack,
that is, the probability of success of the attack as in equation (4), where k is the
number of blocks created by the attacker.
∞ {
∑ 𝜆k ∗ e−𝜆 1, k > z
P= ∗ q (z−k)
∕p ,k ≤ z (4)
k=0
k!
Translated into equation (5) which is the success probability of the attacker.
z
𝜆k ∗ e−𝜆
[ ]
∗ 1 − q∕p(z−k)
∑
P=1− (5)
k=0
k!
Through simulation, it can be seen that when the attacker’s probability of cre-
ating the next block q increases (i.e., the arithmetic power increases), the higher
the probability of a successful attack, and a perfect attack can be achieved when
the attacker has 50% of the arithmetic power of the whole network, while the
lower the probability of creating the next block by itself, the more difficult it is to
attack, so the system in this paper controls the number of blocks in the blockchain
to be at least 6 blocks, and the security of the system can be guaranteed when the
attacker’s own arithmetic power does not exceed 30% of the whole network. We
have shown different types of contract time consumption at different difficulty
levels in Fig 13.
13
Fig. 13 Three types of contract time consumption at different difficulty levels
5.4 Performance analysis of SC‑ABAC
5.4.1 Latency comparison under different smart contract
By simulating concurrent requests from multi-threaded clients, the processing

times of ManageAdd (), QueryData (), and PublishToACC () are tested for differ-
ent numbers of concurrent requests at PoW difficulty 0 and difficulty 2, as shown
in Fig. 14. It can be seen that adding and judging contracts hardly take time under
different concurrent request counts, which proves the superiority of edge nodes
in IoT scenarios. Based on the need to complete consensus, access records and
synchronize queries in the blockchain during the query process; the time con-
sumption increases with the number of requests, resulting in an increase in time.
The difficulty differentiation is not significant, making the time required for PoW
negligible compared to the query time. However, in comparison, the scheme pro-
posed in this paper still has high application value. The overhead of edge nodes
is not analyzed in this section as a subsequent study. This formula simulates data
flow between nodes. "Transmission time" is the time it takes one node to send
data to another. The period between the second node’s data receipt and the first
node’s acknowledgment is the confirmation time. blockchain’s decentralized
nature and need for consensus. The complete latency may include the time it
takes all nodes to validate a new block or transaction and reach a consensus after
broadcasting it.
Latency = (Time taken to send data + Time taken to confirm receipt) / 2.
13
C. Zhonghua et al.
Fig. 14 Three types of contract time consumption at different difficulty levels
5.4.2 Optimization of consensus mechanism
Optimization is performed for the PoW consensus mechanism, and the data con-
sistency efficiency of the distributed system is tested by comparing the cost time
of building different blocks with the same number of nodes and difficulty of 3
for the access control scheme and PoW consensus mechanism in this paper. The
number of blocks in the experiment is set from 1 to 100, and the results are shown
in Fig. 15. The blue part shows the optimized PoW consensus mechanism in this
paper, and the gray part shows the original PoW consensus mechanism, where
the highlighted peak is the time-consuming waiting time when reaching consen-
sus. In terms of average time, the construction time per 100 blocks is reduced by
17.11% compared to PoW. It can be seen that the optimization in this paper out-
performs PoW in the case of a growing number of blocks.
Table 2 represents a comparison of our attribute-based access control model,
which integrates blockchain and edge computing to enhance the security and pri-
vacy of IoT systems, with other relevant models in the field.
Table 1 compares our attribute-based access control method to earlier studies.
Blockchain and edge computing safeguard IoT privacy and security.
• "Security Model" is the current access control strategy.

• "Computing Paradigm" refers to cloud, edge, or fog computing environ-
ments where the paradigm is implemented.
13
Fig. 15 Comparison of optimization algorithms and PoW based on difficulty 5
Table 2 Comparative results of our attribute-based access control model that leverages blockchain and
edge computing for IoT system security and privacy
Our work [18] [6] [4]
Security model Attribute based Role based Policy based Attribute based
Computing paradigm Edge computing Cloud computing Fog computing Edge computing
Blockchain integration Yes Yes No Yes
Access control latency 1.3 (500th access) 1.7 (500th access) 0.9 (500th access) 1.5 (500th access)
(ms)
Max. concurrency 500 400 600 450
(users)
CPU utilization (%) 75 80 70 80
Data privacy feature Yes No Yes Yes
IoT integration Yes No Yes No
• The "Blockchain Integration" column indicates that the study’s model

included blockchain technology.
• "Access Control Latency" refers to the 500th person’s access delay.
• The "Max. Concurrency" setting determines how many users can log in at
once.
• "CPU Utilization" is the proportion of the central processing unit used.
• The "Data Privacy Feature" shows if the model protects user data.
• "IoT Integration" specifies whether the research uses IoT devices.
13
C. Zhonghua et al.
6 Conclusion and limitations
The main contribution of this paper is to design an access control model for ter-
minal devices and resources through the edge nodes of the Internet of Things in
combination with blockchain technology, aiming to provide a new solution for
the deficiencies of access control research on edge computing and blockchain in
the current Internet of Things security system. The specific work is to design the
access control architecture of integrated edge computing on the basis of the origi-
nal integrated edge computing Internet of Things system. The SC-ABAC model is
proposed by combining smart contract in blockchain with attribute-based access
control. Considering the security performance, an access control management
mechanism based on blockchain is implemented based on ECC and ECDSA, and
the security reliability of the model and architecture is verified by experiments. In
terms of average time, the construction time per 100 blocks is reduced by 17.11%
compared to PoW. The inadequacies and future work direction of this paper are,
considering that this research only focuses on the access control of data under the
edge Internet of Things and does not deal with the existing environment of data
and personal privacy information, to try to combine attribute-based encryption
to build an efficient and privacy-protecting edge Internet of Things environment.
Acknowledgements Researchers appreciate the funding support provided by "Scientific research projects
of Jilin Education Department in 2023. Project No.: JJKH20230022KJ
Author contributions CZ, SBG Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing—original

draft, Data curation, Investigation, Software, Validation; Visualization; SBG Supervision, Writing—
review & editing; ASR and PS Resources, Project administration, Writing—review & editing- SBG;
Funding Scientific research projects of Jilin Education Department in 2023. Project No.:
JJKH20230022KJ.
Data availability Not Applicable.
Declarations
Conflict of interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Ethical approval The are no human and animal subjects in this article, and informed consent is not appli-
cable.
Consent to participate All authors consent to participate in this research work. This research work may not
be of direct benefit to us. Our participation is completely voluntary.
Consent to publish All authors give consent for the publication of the research paper in your esteemed
journal.
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The Journal of Supercomputing

Smart contracts attribute‑based access control model

Chen Zhonghua1,2 · S. B. Goyal2 · Anand Singh Rajawat3

Accepted: 22 June 2023

Keywords Blockchain · Internet of things · Smart contract · SC-ABAC

Edge computing and blockchain-based access control should be considered for

This research work is organized in the following manner: Section 2 presents a

2.1 Basic concepts of access control policies

2.2 Types of access control

1. DAC (discretionary access control).

2. MAC (mandatory access control).

3. OBAC (object-based access control).

4. TABC (task-based access control).

5. RBAC (role-based access control).

Fig. 1 Attributes of RBAC

Fig. 2 Principle of RBAC

Fig. 3 Subject of ABAC

Fig. 4 Access process of ABAC

A policy enforcement point, or PEP, is a device that is physically connected to a

2.3 Blockchain and IoT: an overview

2.4 Related work discussions

3.1 IoT access control architecture design for integrated edge computing

Fig. 5 System process flow of methodology

3.1.1 IoT device management module

3.1.2 IoT device access control module

1. encrypting device information;

1. access control decision execution;

3.1.3 IoT device data management module

The IoT device data management module stores:

3.2 Smart contract‑based attribute‑based access control model

3.2.2 Smart contract design based on SC‑ABAC

ManageAdd(): used to add the permission information of an object.

(2) JC is used to determine the application of an object to operate on a resource,

JudgeFromMC() is used to get the permission information of the object from

PublishToACC() is used to send penalty results to ACC.

ACCAnswer() returns JC result to the subject to complete the access control of

3.3 SC‑ABAC‑based inter‑device access control process design

3.3.1 System initialization phase

Fig. 7 Flow chart of SC-ABAC based smart contract implementation

Fig. 8 Processing control flow chart of specific device access data

3.3.5 Optimization of PoW consensus algorithm

4 Methodology to identify applicability of blockchain to a use case

5 Results and discussion

5.1.1 Experimental environment setup

The experiment was conducted on a personal computer (PC) running Windows 11

5.1.2 Access control policy design

5.2.1 Risk of data leakage for terminal devices

Fig. 9 Configuration of the host

Fig. 10 Design of access control policies

5.2.2 Targeting malicious users in edge devices

5.2.3 Targeting malicious users in edge devices

5.2.4 Against malicious nodes in the network

SC-ABAC manages terminal devices with relatively weak performance as En agents.

Fig. 11 Time consumption with different number of visits

Fig. 12 CPU Utilization for Continuous Access Processes

5.3 Blockchain system testing

5.3.1 Performance testing of the blockchain system

5.3.2 System security testing

Fig. 13 Three types of contract time consumption at different difficulty levels

2.1 Basic concepts of access control policies

2.2 Types of access control

2.3 Blockchain and IoT: an overview

2.4 Related work discussions

3.1 IoT access control architecture design for integrated edge computing

3.1.1 IoT device management module

3.1.2 IoT device access control module

3.1.3 IoT device data management module

3.2 Smart contract‑based attribute‑based access control model

3.2.2 Smart contract design based on SC‑ABAC

3.3 SC‑ABAC‑based inter‑device access control process design

3.3.1 System initialization phase

3.3.5 Optimization of PoW consensus algorithm

4 Methodology to identify applicability of blockchain to a use case

5 Results and discussion

5.1.1 Experimental environment setup

5.1.2 Access control policy design

5.2.1 Risk of data leakage for terminal devices

5.2.2 Targeting malicious users in edge devices

5.2.3 Targeting malicious users in edge devices

5.2.4 Against malicious nodes in the network

5.3 Blockchain system testing

5.3.1 Performance testing of the blockchain system

5.3.2 System security testing

5.4 Performance analysis of SC‑ABAC

5.4.1 Latency comparison under different smart contract

5.4.2 Optimization of consensus mechanism

6 Conclusion and limitations