Secure the Stream, Not the Hosts: Attribute-Based Encryption for DRM Enabled Video Streaming

This paper introduces an alternate approach for encrypting video streams using attribute-based encryption (ABE), focusing on securing the data rather than the connection between streaming endpoints. This fundamental shift in the security model means we can now encrypt video segments once at the source and cache them anywhere reducing the computational load on intermediate caches by removing the need for encryption and decryption on a per-client basis. Additionally, restricting or revoking access can be done by revoking users' private keys rather than re-encrypting the entire video stream. Finally, our approach eliminates the need for decryption and encryption at the intermediate caches (currently required for TLS terminations) since an encrypted version of the content can be stored anywhere, reducing the load on the cache.