TrustShare: Secure and Trusted Blockchain Framework for Threat Intelligence Sharing

Ali, Hisham; Buchanan, William J.; Ahmad, Jawad; Abubakar, Marwan; Khan, Muhammad Shahbaz; Wadhaj, Isam

Abstract

We introduce TrustShare, a novel blockchain-based framework designed to enable secure, privacy-preserving, and trust-aware cyber threat intelligence (CTI) sharing across organizational boundaries. Leveraging Hyperledger Fabric, the architecture supports fine-grained access control and immutability through smart contract-enforced trust policies. The system combines Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) with temporal, spatial, and controlled revelation constraints to grant data owners precise control over shared intelligence. To ensure scalable decentralized storage, encrypted CTI is distributed via the IPFS, with blockchain-anchored references ensuring verifiability and traceability. Using STIX for structuring and TAXII for exchange, the framework complies with the GDPR requirements, embedding revocation and the right to be forgotten through certificate authorities. The experimental validation demonstrates that TrustShare achieves low-latency retrieval, efficient encryption performance, and robust scalability in containerized deployments. By unifying decentralized technologies with cryptographic enforcement and regulatory compliance, TrustShare sets a foundation for the next generation of sovereign and trustworthy threat intelligence collaboration.

Citation

Ali, H., Buchanan, W. J., Ahmad, J., Abubakar, M., Khan, M. S., & Wadhaj, I. (2025). TrustShare: Secure and Trusted Blockchain Framework for Threat Intelligence Sharing. Future Internet, 17(7), Article 289. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17070289

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 24, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jun 27, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 30, 2025
• Journal: Future Internet
• Electronic ISSN: 1999-5903
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 7
• Article Number: 289
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17070289
• Keywords: distributed ledger technology; cyber threat intelligence; encryption; GDPR
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/17/7/289