Method and arrangement for providing an audit of a replica database

• US 7,139,775 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2001
• Issued: 11/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Solid Information Technology Oy (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Hotti, Timo, Parkkinen, Jarmo
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US09/985,028
• Publication Number:
  US 20030084073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,846 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 705/40, 709/206, 713/168
• US Class Current: 707/610
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The invention is in the area of distributed system and database security. The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for increasing the level of trust between a master and a replica database by allowing the master database to perform an “unpredictable” audit of the replica database whenever deemed appropriate by the master database. The master database may for example define and generate an audit application and send it to at least one replica database using push synchronization and force the replica database to perform the audit application. The master database may also prepare expected results of the audit of the replica database and store them for later verification. After auditing the replica database may synchronize the results of the audit back to the master database for verification. The information flow between the master and replica databases is advantageously encrypted in a secure manner.

Claims

1. A method for establishing an audit ofa database system comprising at least one first database and at least one second database, comprising the steps of:

at least one first database, said first database being an auditing database sending an audit request to at least one second database to force said at least one second database to perform an audit of contents of said at least one second database, said second database being a to be audited database,

based on contents of said first database, said first database preparing an expected results of the audit of the contents of said at least one second database,

said at least one second database executing at least one audit procedure based on data of said audit request,

said execution of said audit procedure producing, based on the contents of said at least one second database, a set of data items as a result data of said execution,

said at least one second database sendingsaid result data of said execution to said at least one first database, and

said at least one first database verifying said result data by comparing said result data with data from said expected results prepared by said first database, wherein,

said audit request comprises at least one of i) one data item and ii) a computer executable instruction.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that instructions of the audit are unavailable to the second database to be audited before the sending of the audit request.

3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that said audit request comprises at least one computer executable instruction for at least one of the following:

what the audit will exactly do, what algorithms are used and when the audit will be performed.

4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of the following audit procedure is delivered to at least one second database to be audited prior the auditing:

an audit application, an algorithm and a program code to be executed in the database.

5. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that said audit procedure is defined and/or generated on at least one of the first database.

6. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that said audit procedure depends at least partly on the state of at least one second database to be audited.

7. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that said audit procedure is pushed from the first database to at least one second database using synchronization that is initiated by the first database.

8. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that said audit procedure is downloaded from a third computer to at least one second database to be audited.

9. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the necessity for an audit of at least one second database to be audited is determined before the audit by at least one first database.

10. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that said audit request comprises at least one of the following information:

encrypting key, decrypting key, information about when and how to perform the audit and when and how to generate, encrypt and synchronize the result and information about an event that triggers the audit.

11. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the audit process of at least one second database is triggered by at least one of the following events:

date, time, time limit, a certain transaction, a certain user, a certain limit of the performed transactions, a command delivered by at least one of the first database, a command delivered by an administrator and remote procedure call (RPC).

12. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one second database to be audited synchronize the results of the audit to at least one of the following:

to at least one first database, to a public server and/or to at least one other second database.

13. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one second database to be audited stores the results of the audit.

14. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one first database prepares expected results of the audit of the audited database and stores the expected results for later verification.

15. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of the following is delivered between the databases in an encrypted form:

said audit request, an algorithm, a program code, instructions and results of the audit.

16. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of following performances is applied on the database if the audit of said database does not pass:

excluding said database completely from the system, suspending all synchronization activities with said database, conducting another audit for said database and imposing stricter limits to what said database is allowed to do in the system.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein,

in said step of said first database preparing an expected results of the audit of the contents of said at least one second database, said first database stores the expected results for later verification with said result data from said second database, and

in said step of said first database comparing said result data with data from said expected results prepared by said first database, said first database compares said result data with data from said stored expected results.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein,

said second database comprises at least a partial copy of data of said first database, said partial copy of data being at least partially maintained using data synchronization.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein,

said second database comprises at least a partial copy of data of said first database, said partial copy of data being at least partially maintained using data synchronization.

17. An arrangement for establishing an audit to a database system comprising at least one first and at least one second databases, the arrangement comprising:

at least one first database, said first database being an auditing database, arranged to send an audit request to at least one second database to force said at least one second database to perform an audit of contents of said at least one second database,

based on contents of said first database, said first database preparing an expected results of the audit of the contents of said at least one second database,

said at least one second database arranged to execute at least one audit procedure based on data of said audit request, and arranged so that the execution of said audit procedure produces, based on the contents of said at least one second database, a set of data items as a result data of said execution,

said at least one second database arranged to send said result data of the execution to said at least one first database,

said at least one first database arranged to verify said result data by comparing said result data with data from said expected results prepared by said first database, wherein,

said audit request comprises at least one of i) one data item and ii) a computer executable instruction.

18. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for storing instructions of the audit unavailably to the second database to be audited before the sending of the audit request.

19. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for delivering at least one of the following audit procedure from at least one of the first database to at least one of the second databases:

an audit application, an algorithm and a program code to be executed in the database.

20. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for defining and/or generating the audit procedure on at least one first database.

21. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for pushing said audit procedure from the first database to at least one second database using synchronization that is initiated by the first database.

22. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for determining the necessity of an audit for at least one second database before the audit.

23. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for delivering the instructions for an audit performance to at least one second database to be audited.

24. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for synchronizing the results of the audit of at least one second audited database to at least one of the following:

to at least one first database, to the public server and to at least one another second databases.

25. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for storing the actual results of the audit, means for preparing the expected results of the audit of the database to be audited and means for verifying the actual results against the expected results.

26. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for triggering said audit process on at least one of the second database by at least one of the following event:

time limit, a certain transaction, a certain user, a certain limit of the performed transactions, a command delivered by at least one of the first database, a command delivered by an administrator and remote procedure call (RPC).

27. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for encrypting and decrypting at least one of the following information delivered between the databases:

said audit request, an algorithm, a program code, instructions and results of the audit.

28. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the arrangement comprises means for applying at least one of following performance on the database if the audit of said database does not pass:

excluding said database completely from the system, suspending all synchronization activities with said database, conducting another audit for said database and imposing stricter limits to what said database is allowed to do in the system.

29. An arrangement according to claim 17, characterized in that the database servers are provided in a terminal, which is at least one of the following:

a mobile station, a computer, a workstation and personal digital assistant.

31. The arrangement of claim 17, wherein,

in said step of said first database preparing an expected results of the audit of the contents of said at least one second database, said first database stores the expected results for later verification with said result data from said second database, and

in said step of said first database comparing said result data with data from said expected results prepared by said first database, said first database compares said result data with data from said stored expected results.

33. The arrangement of claim 31, wherein,

said second database comprises at least a partial copy of data of said first database, said partial copy of data being at least partially maintained using data synchronization.

35. The arrangement of claim 17, wherein,

said second database comprises at least a partial copy of data of said first database, said partial copy of data being at least partially maintained using data synchronization.