XML Data Integrity Based on Concatenated Hash Function

Data integrity is the fundamental for data authentication. A major problem for XML data authentication is that signed XML data can be copied to another document but still keep signature valid. This is caused by XML data integrity protecting. Through investigation, the paper discovered that besides data content integrity, XML data integrity should also protect element location information, and context referential integrity under fine-grained security situation. The aim of this paper is to propose a model for XML data integrity considering XML data features. The paper presents an XML data integrity model named as CSR (content integrity, structure integrity, context referential integrity) based on a concatenated hash function. XML data content integrity is ensured using an iterative hash process, structure integrity is protected by hashing an absolute path string from root node, and context referential integrity is ensured by protecting context-related elements. Presented XML data integrity model can satisfy integrity requirements under situation of fine-grained security, and compatible with XML signature. Through evaluation, the integrity model presented has a higher efficiency on digest value-generation than the Merkle hash tree-based integrity model for XML data. KeywordsFine-grained security, XML data integrity, Digest value, Merkle hash tree, XML signature.