Abstract
A reliable log system is a prerequisite for many applications. Financial systems need to have transactions logged in a precise manner, medical systems rely on having trusted medical records and security logs record system access requests in order to trace malicious attempts. Keeping multiple copies helps to achieve availability and reliability against such hackers. Unfortunately, maintaining redundant copies in a distributed manner in a byzantine setting has always been a challenging task, however it has recently become simpler given advances in blockchain technologies. In this work, we present a tamper-resistant log system through the use of a blockchain. We leverage the immutable write action and distributed storage provided by the blockchain as a basis to develop a secure log system, but we also add a privacy preserving layer that is essential for many applications. We detail the security and privacy aspects of our solution, as well as how they relate to performance needs in relevant settings. Finally, we implement our system over Hyperledger Fabric and demonstrate the system’s value for several use cases. In addition, we provide a scalability analysis for applying our solution in a large-scale system.
Highlights
A reliable log system is a prerequisite for many applications
Using a symmetric key encryption scheme, e.g., advanced encryption standard (AES) [30], where the encryption key is the same as the decryption key would mean that an attacker that compromises the participant could get this key and be able to decrypt past records stored on the blockchain
This conflicts with the basic idea behind EngraveChain and a way to avoid this is by using a public key encryption scheme, e.g., Rivest–Shamir–Adleman encryption (RSA) [31], where the encryption and decryption keys are different
Summary
Though distinct, settings where EngraveChain could be applied Both settings involve multiple peer nodes, each containing a stored copy of the log information. Even if one organization’s system is compromised, it could recover its information from the copies of the blockchain stored on the infrastructure of the other organization. These two organizations would have an incentive to cooperate in order to insure that should one of them face a significant attack, they could in the end recover their systems from the other bank. Whether to replicate only internally or externally could depend on a variety of factors including the level of privacy of the information, the importance of it remaining secure, and other considerations
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