Threaded Leaf Nodes in Database Journal for Cryptographic Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Database management systems face challenges in providing advanced security and auditing capabilities, such as cryptographic verification of transaction history, while maintaining high transactional throughput.
Innovation Solution
A journaled database management system employs a cryptographic hash tree structure with threaded leaf nodes and a symmetric hash operator to support cryptographic verification features, allowing for efficient proof generation and redaction of entries without compromising transaction rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cryptographic verification techniques are implemented in database management systems, then security and auditing capabilities are improved, but transactional throughput deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cryptographic verification process by organizing journal entries into a Merkle tree structure where only relevant path information needs to be verified. This segmentation allows parallel processing of different tree paths and enables selective verification of specific entry ranges, thereby maintaining high transactional throughput while providing robust cryptographic verification capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-computing and storing Merkle tree paths alongside journal entries during the logging process. This pre-computation ensures that cryptographic verification can be performed efficiently without adding significant overhead to transaction commit operations, thus preserving high transactional throughput while enabling security verification.
2Reliability
If cryptographic verification features are added to verify transaction history, then security is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing the Merkle tree structure to serve multiple functions simultaneously: it provides cryptographic verification of transaction integrity, enables efficient range proofs for auditing, supports redaction of sensitive entries, and maintains a compact representation of the entire transaction history. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate mechanisms for each security feature, thereby limiting the increase in system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces the Merkle tree as an intermediary data structure that mediates between the journal entries and the verification process. This intermediary layer simplifies the verification complexity by reducing it to hash computations on tree paths, rather than requiring verification of entire transaction histories, thus improving reliability while managing system complexity.
3Reliability
If proof generation for transaction verification is implemented, then auditing capability is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary verification information (Merkle tree paths and relevant hashes) from the complete transaction history to generate proofs. This extraction approach allows auditing capabilities to be implemented without processing or transmitting the entire journal, significantly reducing proof generation time while maintaining strong auditing capability through cryptographic verification of the extracted path information.
Data Source
AI summary
A database management system stores an entry in a journal. The journal, upon storage of the entry, comprises an ordered plurality of leaf nodes and a hierarchy of interior nodes based upon the leaf nodes. A node in the ordered plurality of nodes comprises a hash value computed based on the hash of a corresponding entry and a hash of a prior leaf node. A cryptographic proof of the entry comprises successive application of a hash operator to one or more hashes of the leaf nodes.