Verifiable Record Storage Service Using Interdependent Hash Values
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Customers face challenges in ensuring the integrity and authenticity of log entries maintained by remote logging services, as they may be tampered with or corrupted, which can compromise the monitoring and auditing of critical applications.
Innovation Solution
A tamper-resistant logging service mechanism that generates interdependent hash values for log entries, allowing clients to verify their integrity by comparing stored hash values with recalculated values using an audit history database, using commutative functions to ensure integrity even if log entries are processed in different orders.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If log entries are maintained by a remote service, then scalability and cost reduction are improved, but data integrity and trustworthiness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by generating and storing hash values of log entries at the time of logging, before any potential tampering can occur. These pre-computed hash values are stored in an audit history database, enabling future verification of log integrity without requiring trust in the remote service's current state
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces hash values as an intermediary mechanism between the customer application and the remote logging service. Instead of directly trusting the remote service's log storage, the customer can verify log integrity through cryptographic hash comparisons, with the hash values serving as a trusted mediator that proves log authenticity
2Reliability
If hash values are generated for each log entry to enable verification, then data integrity is improved, but computational overhead and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
Hash values are computed and stored in advance when log entries are created and submitted to the remote service. This preliminary computation eliminates the need for time-consuming hash calculations during verification, as both the original hash and the log entry data are already available for immediate comparison
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copy of the essential verification information (hash values) and stores it in an audit history database that the customer can access. This copy enables fast local verification without requiring repeated communication with the remote service or recalculation of hashes
Data Source
AI summary
A record storage system maintains an interdependent series of hash values for records submitted to the record storage service by one or more clients. The record storage service generates a hash value for each record based at least in part on the content of the record and a hash value of one or more previous records. In some examples, the generated hash values are saved in an audit database by the clients. Clients may retain some, all, or none of the hash values based on the amount of auditing desired and the amount of storage space available in the audit database. The clients are able to verify the integrity of records submitted to the record storage system by retrieving the records from the system, recalculating the hash values of the records, and comparing the recalculated hash values to the hash values retained by the client.