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GooglePatent applicationSecurity & privacyInterest 4/10

Google patents database check that hides data if queries are tampered with

This filing describes a method for servers to verify that a client is asking for data honestly. The server hides small pieces of secret information in the database and sends them to the client along with normal query results. If the client tries to cheat by sending fake queries, the server detects the mismatch and refuses to share the encryption keys needed to read the data.

Why it mattersIt offers a way to protect sensitive data in shared databases by ensuring that only honest users can access the decryption keys.

In the filing’s own words

Methods, systems, and computer readable medium facilitating encrypted information retrieval. Methods can include receiving a batch of queries that includes queries to special buckets in each database shard. Query results responsive to the batch of queries are transmitted to the client device. The query results includes server-encrypted secret shares obtained from the special buckets. Client-encrypted versions of the secret shares are received. A full set of server-encrypted secret shares is transmitted to the client device, which is encrypted by the client device to create a full set of client-server-encrypted secret shares. The client device is classified based on how many of the secret shares are included in both of the client-encrypted secret shares received from the client device and the full set of client-server-encrypted secret shares received from the client device.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method, comprising: generating, by a server device, secret shares of secret data that is known only to the server device; including, by the server device, a respective secret share of the secret shares into a special bucket of each shard of a partitioned database; receiving, at the server device and from a client device, a batch of queries comprising real queries and padding queries, wherein the padding queries are directed to the special buckets; transmitting, by the server device and to the client device, query results comprising the secret shares corresponding to the padding queries; receiving, at the server device and from the client device, reconstructed secret data, wherein the reconstructed secret data is generated by the client device attempting to reconstruct the secret data using the transmitted secret shares; comparing, by the server device, the reconstructed secret data received from the client device to the secret data that is known only to the server device; and withholding, by the server device, a cryptographic salt used to derive encryption keys for the partitioned database based on a determination that the reconstructed secret data does not match the secret data that is known only to the server device.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
ENCRYPTED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
Publication number
US20260291718A1
Application number
19694389
Filed
Jun 1, 2026
Published
Sep 24, 2026
Inventors
2
Claims
20

Classified under

H04L 9/085 Electricity & electronicsG06F 16/285 Physics & computingG06F 21/6227 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.