Blockchain Authentication Log for Non-Repudiation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current blockchain systems lack an efficient and robust mechanism to authenticate users, leading to potential malicious activities attributed to stolen private keys, as there is no irrefutable record of the authentication method used, compromising accountability and non-repudiation of transactions.
Innovation Solution
The generation of an immutable audit trail through smart contracts on a blockchain, which records authentication logs and challenges, ensuring that only legitimate users can perform transactions by generating authentication challenges and recording them into transaction payloads, enhancing detection and deterrence of repudiation attacks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional private key storage is used without authentication logging, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability of transaction authenticity is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary authentication and logging actions before the actual transaction occurs. The authentication challenge is generated and the user's response is recorded in the transaction metadata before the transaction is executed, ensuring that authentication evidence is captured in advance to prevent later repudiation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an authentication logging mechanism as an intermediary between the private key storage and the transaction execution. This intermediary captures and records authentication evidence, creating a bridge that links the user's identity to the transaction without exposing the private key, thereby enhancing reliability while maintaining ease of operation.
2Reliability
If authentication logging is implemented, then reliability of transaction authenticity is improved, but device complexity is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the blockchain transaction metadata structure multi-functional by extending it to carry both transaction data and authentication log data. This universal approach allows the existing metadata infrastructure to serve dual purposes without requiring separate dedicated storage systems, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication log is nested within the transaction metadata structure, which itself is nested within the blockchain transaction. This hierarchical nesting allows the authentication mechanism to be integrated into the existing transaction flow without requiring separate external systems, minimizing additional complexity.
3Reliability
If authentication challenges are recorded in transaction metadata, then non-repudiation is improved, but loss of information is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential authentication evidence (the user's response to the challenge and the timestamp) and places it in the transaction metadata, while keeping the sensitive private key and detailed authentication session information secure in the user's device. This selective extraction provides non-repudiation without exposing sensitive information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different levels of information recording to different parts of the system: the transaction metadata contains public authentication evidence for non-repudiation, while the private key and detailed authentication state remain locally secured in the user's device. This local quality approach ensures non-repudiation without causing information loss or exposure.
Data Source
AI summary
An example operation may include one or more of joining, by a host device, a blockchain managed by one or more devices on a decentralized network, the blockchain is configured to use one or more smart contracts that specify transactions among a plurality of end-users, creating on the blockchain the smart contract defining authentication parameters for an authentication of an end-user from the plurality of the end-users, executing the smart contract to perform the authentication of the end-user associated with a transaction based on the authentication parameters by generating an authentication challenge for the transaction, and recording an authentication log produced by the authentication challenge into a metadata of a transaction payload for analytics.