Scalable Computing and Communications: Theory and Practice

16

–––––––––––––––––––––––

Toward a Secure Fragment Allocation of Files in Heterogeneous Distributed Systems

Yun Tian, Mohammed I. Alghamdi, Xiaojun Ruan, Jiong Xie, and Xiao Qin

16.1   INTRODUCTION

16.1.1   Security Problems in Distributed Systems

An increasing number of scientific and business files need to be stored in large-scale distributed storage systems. The confidentiality of security-sensitive files must be preserved in modern distributed storage systems because such systems are exposed to an increasing number of attacks from malicious users [1].

Although there exist many security techniques and mechanisms (e.g., see Reference 2 and 3), it is quite challenging to secure data stored in distributed systems. In general, security mechanisms need to be built for each component in a distributed system, then a secure method of integrating all the components in the system can be implemented. It is critical and important to maintain the confidentiality of files stored in a distributed storage system when malicious programs and users compromise some storage nodes in the system.

In addition to cryptographic systems, secret sharing is an approach to providing data confidentiality by distributing a file among a group of n storage nodes, to each of which a fragment of the file is allocated. The file can be reconstructed only when a sufficient number (e.g., more than k) of the fragments are available to legitimate users. Attackers are unable to reconstruct a file using the compromised ...