Authenticated Pattern Matching via Suffix Tree Accumulators
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for authenticated pattern matching and exact path queries in cloud computing settings to ensure the integrity and correctness of data processing on outsourced data sets, particularly in scenarios where data is processed by untrusted servers.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves precomputing a suffix tree that organizes patterns in the data, encoding structural and suffix information, and providing this information to a server to perform pattern matching queries, along with generating proofs for verification, ensuring that pattern matches or mismatches are correctly identified and validated.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If data processing is outsourced to untrusted servers for scalability and efficiency, then productivity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to inability to verify computation correctness
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by precomputing authentication structures (Merkle trees, suffix arrays, accumulation values) during an offline phase before the actual query processing. This allows the server to be held accountable for pre-computed data structures, enabling verification of pattern matching results without reprocessing the entire dataset, thus maintaining reliability while achieving scalability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cryptographic intermediaries including Merkle trees, suffix arrays, and accumulation values that act as mediators between the outsourced data and verification mechanisms. These intermediaries enable the client to verify computation correctness without directly processing the raw data, resolving the contradiction between outsourcing for efficiency and maintaining verification capability.
2Reliability
If authenticated data structures are used to ensure query verification, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional cryptographic components
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication structure is segmented into multiple independent components: Merkle trees for data structure authentication, suffix arrays for pattern indexing, and accumulation values for verification. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and reduces the complexity burden on any single part of the system while maintaining overall verification reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates cryptographic copies and representations of the data structure (Merkle tree hashes, suffix array indices, accumulation values) that can be verified without accessing or processing the original large datasets. These copies enable efficient verification with minimal complexity in the verification phase.
3Reliability
If verification proofs are generated for each query result, then reliability is improved, but loss of time increases due to additional verification computations
Solution Approach 1:
Verification proofs are generated in advance during the precomputation phase. The Merkle tree hashes, suffix array indices, and accumulation values are computed beforehand and stored with the outsourced data. During query processing, these pre-computed structures enable rapid verification without generating new proofs from scratch, significantly reducing verification time while maintaining strong authentication.
4Measurement precision
If suffix trees with accumulation values are precomputed for authenticated pattern matching, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of substance increases due to additional stored information
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of storing complete suffix trees with all their structural information, the patent stores compact cryptographic representations including Merkle tree hashes, suffix arrays, and accumulation values. These compact copies maintain the essential information needed for accurate pattern matching verification while using significantly less storage space than full suffix trees.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the representation of pattern matching data from detailed structural information (full suffix trees) to compressed cryptographic parameters (hashes, indices, accumulation values). This parameter transformation maintains measurement precision for pattern matching while dramatically reducing the storage overhead by encoding information in a more compact form.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus are provided for authenticated pattern matching and authenticated exact path queries on outsourced data by a third party server. A source of the outsourced data computes verification information for node and suffix accumulators and sends the data, accumulation values and suffix tree or label trie information to the server; and publishes its public key and the verification digests. The verification may comprise an accumulation tree (AT) or any other public key authentication scheme, such as digital signatures, Merkle Trees and publishing the accumulation values. The server receives the query from a client and the server computes an answer α to the query and a verification proof that are provided to the client. The client then verifies the answer.