Distributed Data Integrity Checks Without Auditor Data Exposure
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for checking the availability and integrity of distributed data objects require the auditor to have knowledge of the data content, which is undesirable, especially during external audits, and involve complex preprocessing and additional data storage.
Innovation Solution
A method that allows for the determination of corrupted data fragments without revealing the data content, using a subset of fragments to derive checksums, random masks, and polynomial interpolation, ensuring the auditor remains unaware of the data while maintaining security through distributed random mask generation and checksum computation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the auditor checks the integrity and availability of distributed data fragments, then the availability and integrity verification is achieved, but the auditor must acquire knowledge of the data content which compromises privacy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces checksums as an intermediary mechanism that allows integrity verification without exposing actual data content. The checksums serve as mediators between the auditor and the encrypted data fragments, enabling the auditor to verify data integrity through mathematical relationships without ever seeing the plaintext data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the verification approach by changing from direct data inspection to checksum-based verification. By converting data into checksum parameters through cryptographic hashing, the system enables integrity checking while maintaining data confidentiality through parameter transformation.
2Reliability
If traditional integrity checking methods are used, then data verification is possible, but additional components like MACs and sentinels must be added which increase storage requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the checksums multi-functional by using them for both integrity verification and availability checking. The same checksum mechanism serves multiple purposes: verifying data integrity, detecting corrupted fragments, and enabling reconstruction of missing data, thereby eliminating the need for separate verification components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges integrity checking and availability verification into a single unified process using checksums. Instead of maintaining separate MACs for integrity and separate mechanisms for availability, the system combines these functions into one checksum-based approach that achieves both goals simultaneously.
3Reliability
If all fragments are used for checksum computation, then complete verification is achieved, but the auditing process becomes computationally intensive and slower
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by using only a subset of fragments for checksum computation in many cases. The system can verify integrity using fewer than all fragments, and can identify corrupted fragments without processing the entire dataset, thereby reducing computational overhead while maintaining verification effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the verification process into independent checksum computations for individual fragments. This allows parallel processing of multiple fragment checksums and enables selective verification of specific fragments rather than requiring sequential processing of all data.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for checking the availability and integrity of a data object stored on a plurality of servers and having a number N of data words. For the distributed storage on the servers, the data object is fragmented. Each fragment is transmitted to and stored on one server. To check the availability and integrity of the fragments stored on the servers, the same random number is sent from an auditor unit to the servers. A checksum is created by the servers, in each case modified by application of the random number to the data of the respective fragment, and the checksum is transmitted to the auditor unit. The auditor unit uses the consistency check to determine whether the individual checksums sent by the servers are consistent and, if this is the case, establishes the availability and integrity of the data.