A Review of Blockchain-Driven Access Control Frameworks for Secure Smart Contracts in Cloud Environments

Abstract

Access control is an important part of cybersecurity in distributed systems since conventional centralized mechanisms are not always sufficient. Due to blockchain, individuals have begun to employ decentralized access control models as they are capable of enhancing transparency, auditing and defending against fraud. At the reason of this report, we survey various blockchain-based access control systems, paying special attention to their architectures, confirmation mechanisms, identity models and policy enforcement mechanisms. We categorize the current literature into various groups based on their platforms (e.g. Ethereum, Hyperledger, Fabric), control mechanisms (e.g. RBAC, ABAC and capability-based) and whether they introduce additional privacy-tools such as zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized identifiers. The paper analyzes and describes the key gaps in current frameworks in terms of scalability, interoperability and computing expenses. Then, the shortcomings of the current research are pointed out so that they could guide future efforts in the field of blockchain-based access control systems.