Show HN: A key-value store built with homomorphic encryption
github.comO(N) to get a key-value (N being the total number of keys) kind of defeats the purpose of a database.
Couldn't you just use a file with (normally) encrypted keys and values? I'm probably slightly misunderstanding the premise of this project.
Non-cryptographer here, but I think homomorphic encryption is fascinating. IIRC, it allows a user to perform operations on encrypted data, without being able to decrypt the original data. I see it as the holy grail of data anonymization and I understand it to be cutting edge stuff.
I'm sure someone will correct me soon :)
I mainly thought it was neat there's a way to do matching on encrypted data without deterministic encryption. It's based on this example - https://github.com/homenc/HElib/tree/master/examples/BGV_cou... - which explains more about how it works and why it's O(N).
Ankane should stop building non-sense, half-assed open source tools that serve no good purpose..
What unique abilities does homomorphic encryption provide here?
Ciphertext can be used for keys or values in a normal key-value store...
Homomorphic encryption reveals less information to the server about the query than if you were to encrypt keys (with deterministic encryption) and values. It hides the fact that the same query was run multiple times and which key (if any) was matched.
Should not be considered secure, only for research. Dang it. The premise sounded really cool!
Here are details about security from HElib[0], the library used by this project.
The premise of HE is really cool. I think it's just early days yet.
[0] https://github.com/homenc/HElib/blob/master/CKKS-security.md
Neat idea.