Homomorphic Encryption Circuits With Ciphertext Authentication Nullification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hybrid or transciphering encryption mechanisms lack the ability to authenticate ciphertexts and nullify unauthenticated data during homomorphic encryption computations, leading to potential data tampering and security breaches in cloud computing environments.
Innovation Solution
An Authentication Transciphering (AT) computing tool that integrates authentication tag checking and nullification logic into homomorphic encryption (HE) circuits, allowing for authenticity checks and secure deletion of unauthenticated ciphertexts, with configurable locations for nullification logic based on security and latency preferences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If authentication tag checking logic is integrated into HE circuits, then data security and integrity are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges authentication tag checking logic directly into the homomorphic encryption circuit structure. The authentication logic is integrated at the input stage of the HE circuit, allowing simultaneous authentication and encryption operations without requiring separate authentication hardware modules, thus improving security while controlling complexity growth.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication tag checking is performed as a preliminary action before the main homomorphic encryption computations. By validating ciphertext authenticity at the input stage and nullifying unauthenticated data before processing, the system prevents security breaches early in the computation pipeline, improving overall reliability without adding complexity to the core HE operations.
2Reliability
If nullification logic is inserted into HE circuits to delete unauthenticated ciphertexts, then data integrity is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The nullification logic operates as a preliminary filtering mechanism that identifies and nullifies unauthenticated ciphertexts before they enter the main HE computation pipeline. By performing authentication checks and nullification at the input stage rather than after complete processing, the system minimizes the time penalty to only the authentication check duration, preserving data integrity while limiting time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The nullification logic extracts and removes unauthenticated ciphertexts from the processing stream immediately upon authentication failure. By taking out problematic data early and preventing it from propagating through the circuit, the system avoids wasting processing time on invalid data while maintaining overall data integrity, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and time efficiency.
3Reliability
If authentication and nullification operations are performed on encrypted data, then security against data tampering is improved, but computational overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines authentication tag verification and nullification operations within the existing homomorphic encryption circuit framework. By merging these security operations with the encryption infrastructure rather than implementing them as separate processing stages, the system achieves improved security against data tampering while minimizing additional computational overhead through shared hardware resources and integrated logic paths.
Data Source
AI summary
Mechanisms are provided for performing homomorphic cryptographic operations. The mechanisms receive a specification of a homomorphic encryption (HE) operation to be performed on workloads comprising one or more input ciphertexts and generate a circuit of HE computations for performing the HE operation. The circuit comprises authentication tag checking logic at one or more inputs of the circuit, and nullification logic inserted into the circuit. The nullification logic operates to delete one or more HE encrypted ciphertexts received by the circuit. The mechanisms process the workloads by the circuit of HE computations to generate one or more output ciphertexts that are results of the HE operation executed on the one or more input ciphertexts, which are returned to a source computing system. The nullification logic deletes an input ciphertext of the one or more input ciphertexts when the authentication tag is invalid.