Cryptographic Hash History Log for Compliance Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for managing digital product entitlements are vulnerable to tampering, as customers can manipulate database records to obtain additional entitlements without proper verification, leading to potential fraud and billing discrepancies.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where a system management server periodically sends cryptographically timestamped hashes of its states to a provider server, allowing for verification of compliance information and detecting inconsistencies, thereby reducing the window for tampering and ensuring accurate billing and usage tracking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If database tables are used to store entitlement numbers, then access management is simplified, but security against tampering is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-computes and stores cryptographic hashes of entitlement data in a history log before any potential tampering can occur. These hashes serve as predetermined reference points that enable later verification of data integrity without requiring continuous complex computations.
Solution Approach 2:
A cryptographic hash function acts as an intermediary between the raw entitlement data and the verification process. The hash transforms the original data into a fixed-size digest that can be stored and compared, providing a secure bridge that prevents direct manipulation while maintaining verification capability.
2Reliability
If continuous communication is maintained with provider server, then compliance monitoring is improved, but network overhead and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous communication, the system implements periodic compliance verification by comparing current entitlement data against pre-stored cryptographic hashes at scheduled intervals. This reduces network traffic and system complexity while maintaining effective compliance monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts only the essential verification data (cryptographic hashes) from the full entitlement information and transmits/stores only these extracted elements. This minimizes data transmission requirements and simplifies the communication protocol while preserving the ability to detect tampering.
3Reliability
If cryptographic verification is implemented, then tampering detection is enhanced, but processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
Cryptographic hashes are computed and stored in advance during normal system operation, creating a baseline for future comparisons. This preliminary action shifts the computational burden to times when processing is already occurring, reducing the overhead during critical verification moments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates cryptographic copies (hashes) of the entitlement data that are much smaller and faster to process than the original data. These copied hash values can be rapidly compared against current state to detect tampering, significantly reducing processing overhead compared to verifying the full original data sets.
Data Source
AI summary
Some embodiments of a system and a method to verify compliance in a connected system have been presented. For instance, a system management server provided by a software vendor is installed in a customer's network to manage a set of computer systems belonging to the customer. The system management server can provide cryptographically timestamped hashes of states of the system management server to the software vendor periodically to allow the software vendor to verify compliance information from the customer.