Forward and Backward-Secure Range-Searchable Symmetric Encryption

Dynamic searchable symmetric encryption (DSSE) allows a client to query or update an outsourced encrypted database. Range queries are commonly needed. Previous range-searchable schemes either do not support updates natively (SIGMOD’16) or use file indexes of many long bit-vectors for distinct keywords, which only support toggling updates via homomorphically flipping the presence bit. (ESORICS’18). We propose a generic upgrade of any (inverted-index) DSSE to support range queries (a.k.a. range DSSE), without homomorphic encryption, and a specific instantiation with a new trade-off reducing client-side storage. Our schemes achieve forward security, an important property that mitigates file injection attacks. Moreover, we identify a variant of injection attacks against the first somewhat dynamic scheme (ESORICS’18). We also extend the definition of backward security to range DSSE and show that our schemes are compatible with a generic upgrade of backward security (CCS’17). We comprehensively analyze the computation and communication overheads, including implementation details of client-side index-related operations omitted by prior schemes. We show high empirical efficiency for million-scale databases over a million-scale keyword space.

Query co-planning for shared execution in key-value stores

Key-value stores propose a straightforward yet powerful data model. Data is modeled using key-value pairs where values can be arbitrary objects and written/read using the key associated with it. In addition to their simple interface, such data stores also provide read operations such as full and range scans. However, due to the simplicity of its interface, trying to optimize data accesses becomes challenging. This work aims to enable the shared execution of concurrent range and point queries on key-value stores. Thus, reducing the overall data movement when executing a complete workload. To accomplish this, we analyze different possible data structures and propose our variation of a segment tree, Updatable Interval Tree. Our data structure helps us co-planning and co-executing multiple range queries together and reduces redundant work. This results in executing workloads more efficiently and overall increased throughput, as we show in our evaluation.

Lock-free Contention Adapting Search Trees

Concurrent key-value stores with range query support are crucial for the scalability and performance of many applications. Existing lock-free data structures of this kind use a fixed synchronization granularity. Using a fixed synchronization granularity in a concurrent key-value store with range query support is problematic as the best performing synchronization granularity depends on a number of factors that are difficult to predict, such as the level of contention and the number of items that are accessed by range queries. We present the first linearizable lock-free key-value store with range query support that dynamically adapts its synchronization granularity. This data structure is called the lock-free contention adapting search tree (LFCA tree). An LFCA tree automatically performs local adaptations of its synchronization granularity based on heuristics that take contention and the performance of range queries into account. We show that the operations of LFCA trees are linearizable, that the lookup operation is wait-free, and that the remaining operations (insert, remove and range query) are lock-free. Our experimental evaluation shows that LFCA trees achieve more than twice the throughput of related lock-free data structures in many scenarios. Furthermore, LFCA trees are able to perform substantially better than data structures with a fixed synchronization granularity over a wide range of scenarios due to their ability to adapt to the scenario at hand.

Succinct range filters

We present the Succinct Range Filter (SuRF), a fast and compact data structure for approximate membership tests. Unlike traditional Bloom filters, SuRF supports both single-key lookups and common range queries, such as range counts. SuRF is based on a new data structure called the Fast Succinct Trie (FST) that matches the performance of state-of-the-art order-preserving indexes, while consuming only 10 bits per trie node---a space close to the minimum required by information theory. Our experiments show that SuRF speeds up range queries in a widely used database storage engine by up to 5×.

Work-sensitive Dynamic Complexity of Formal Languages

Which amount of parallel resources is needed for updating a query result after changing an input? In this work we study the amount of work required for dynamically answering membership and range queries for formal languages in parallel constant time with polynomially many processors. As a prerequisite, we propose a framework for specifying dynamic, parallel, constant-time programs that require small amounts of work. This framework is based on the dynamic descriptive complexity framework by Patnaik and Immerman.