Log Record Validation via Encrypted Hash Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current solutions fail to effectively validate log records in computing systems, particularly in edge computing, to prove their origin and integrity, as they lack robust mechanisms to prevent tampering and ensure reliable component verification and traceability.
Innovation Solution
A method is implemented where a software component generates a hash of a log record, encrypts it with its private key, and stores the encrypted hash separately, allowing another component to decrypt and validate the hash using the public key, ensuring the log record's authenticity and integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If log records are stored without encryption, then storage and access are simple and fast, but the log records can be tampered with and their integrity cannot be verified
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary hashing of log records and encrypts the hashes with private keys before storage. This advance preparation creates cryptographic proofs that enable later verification without requiring complex validation mechanisms at access time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cryptographic intermediaries (hash functions and digital signatures) between the log records and verification processes. These intermediaries provide a reliable mechanism for proving integrity without requiring direct complex validation of the original records.
2Reliability
If cryptographic validation mechanisms are implemented, then log record authenticity and integrity are proven, but the system complexity and computational overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the validation complexity from the main log processing path by separating hash generation and encryption into distinct preliminary steps. This allows the core logging functionality to remain simple while cryptographic validation operates independently through stored signatures.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of validating original log records through complex mechanisms, the system creates simplified cryptographic copies (hashes) that contain the essential verification information. These copies are much easier to process and validate than the full log records.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If hash encryption is performed for each log record, then tampering detection capability is enhanced, but the processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of protection from protecting entire log records to protecting only their cryptographic hashes. This parameter change maintains tampering resistance while significantly reducing the amount of data that requires expensive cryptographic operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of applying full cryptographic validation to entire log records, the system applies cryptographic protection only to essential identifying features (the hashes). This partial action provides sufficient security against tampering while minimizing computational overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods support generation and validation of log records. For instance, a software object may generate log records and save those log records to a first repository. Either the same or a different software object may then generate a hash for each log record and then encrypt each hash and store each hash in another repository. A software object that consumes the log records may then validate a given log record by accessing its corresponding encrypted hash, decrypting the hash, and comparing the decrypted hash to a re-generated hash of the particular log record.