Asymmetric system and method for tamper-proof storage of an audit trial for a database
First Claim
1. A method for providing one or more independent auditors an audit trail having one or more records for a database system, an integrity of the audit trail being vulnerable to actions taken by an access-privileged user other than the auditors, the database system having a writing machine (writer) not under the control of the access-privileged user or the auditors, each record having a corresponding authentication token and a validation token, the method comprising:
- initiating the audit trail by generating an initial value of an authentication token and an initial value of a validation token based on a first encryption key of a first type (writer public key) generated by the writer and a second encryption key of the first type generated by each Auditor (auditor public key);
generating a third encryption key of a second type (writer private key) related to the first encryption key and a fourth encryption key of a second type (auditor private key) related to the second encryption key;
updating the values of the writer private key, the authentication token, and the validation token for each additional audit trail record and integrating the updated values of the validation token and the writer public key into each corresponding record of the audit trail; and
validating, by the auditor, each record of the audit trail by comparing the integrated validation token with a newly computed validation token in order to detect a tampering of the audit trail.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An asymmetric key based method and system is provided for a tamper-proof storage of one or more records of an audit trail for a database. The asymmetric key based key exchange mechanism is employed to arrive at a common key, which is then used to obtain the authentication and the validation tokens. The method creates one or more authentication token values, and generates one or more validation token values from the authentication token values through a combination of a hashing process and an encryption process. Once the validation token values are created, they are further integrated into the records in the database. When an authorized person such as an auditor who needs to check the integrity of the records, he can detect a tampering of the records by comparing a validation token value newly computed by him independently with the validation token value integrated in the record.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for providing one or more independent auditors an audit trail having one or more records for a database system, an integrity of the audit trail being vulnerable to actions taken by an access-privileged user other than the auditors, the database system having a writing machine (writer) not under the control of the access-privileged user or the auditors, each record having a corresponding authentication token and a validation token, the method comprising:
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initiating the audit trail by generating an initial value of an authentication token and an initial value of a validation token based on a first encryption key of a first type (writer public key) generated by the writer and a second encryption key of the first type generated by each Auditor (auditor public key); generating a third encryption key of a second type (writer private key) related to the first encryption key and a fourth encryption key of a second type (auditor private key) related to the second encryption key; updating the values of the writer private key, the authentication token, and the validation token for each additional audit trail record and integrating the updated values of the validation token and the writer public key into each corresponding record of the audit trail; and validating, by the auditor, each record of the audit trail by comparing the integrated validation token with a newly computed validation token in order to detect a tampering of the audit trail. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for providing at least one independent auditor an audit trail, the audit trail having one or more records recording actions taken against a database system, the integrity of the audit trail being vulnerable to actions taken by an access-privileged user other than the auditor, the database system having a writing machine (writer) not under the control of the access-privileged user or the auditor, the method comprising:
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integrating into each record a corresponding value of a validation token generated based on a first pair of public-private encryption keys generated by the writer and a second pair of public-private encryption keys generated by the auditor, wherein the writer has an access to the public encryption key of the second pair (auditor public key), and the auditor has an access to the public encryption key of the first pair (writer public key), wherein only the writer has an access to the private key of the first pair (writer private key), and only the auditor has an access to the private key of the second pair (auditor private key), and wherein the auditor has the ability to compute the values of the validation token for the records to verify against the integrated values of the validation token in order to detect a tampering of the audit trail by the access-privileged user. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computer readable medium storing a computer program for providing at least one independent auditor an audit trail, the audit trail having one or more records recording actions taken against a database system, the integrity of the audit trail being vulnerable to actions taken by an access-privileged user other than the auditor, the database system having a writing machine (writer) not under the control of the access-privileged user or the auditor, the computer program comprising instructions for:
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integrating into each record a corresponding value of a validation token generated based on a first pair of public-private encryption keys generated by the writer and a second pair of public-private encryption keys generated by the auditor, wherein the writer has an access to the public encryption key of the second pair (auditor public key), and the auditor has an access to the public encryption key of the first pair (writer public key), wherein only the writer has an access to the private key of the first pair (writer private key), and only the auditor has an access to the private key of the second pair (auditor private key), and wherein the auditor has the ability to compute the values of the validation token for the records to verify against the integrated values of the validation token in order to detect a tampering of the audit trail by the access-privileged user. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A system for providing at least one independent auditor an audit trail, the audit trail having one or more records recording actions taken against a database, the integrity of the audit trail being vulnerable to actions taken by an access-privileged user other than the auditor, the database having a writing machine (writer) not under the control of the access-privileged user or the auditor, the system comprising:
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means for integrating into each record a corresponding value of a validation token generated based on a first pair of public-private encryption keys generated by the writer and a second pair of public-private encryption keys generated by the auditor, means for the writer to have access to the public encryption key of the second pair (auditor public key), and the auditor has an access to the public encryption key of the first pair (writer public key), wherein only the writer has an access to the private key of the first pair (writer private key), and only the auditor has an access to the private key of the second pair (auditor private key), and means for the auditor to be able to compute the values of the validation token for the records to verify against the integrated values of the validation token in order to detect a tampering of the audit trail by the access-privileged user. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification