HomKV

HomkV is a proposed cryptographic data-processing framework designed to perform operations on encrypted data stored in a distributed key-value store. The name derives from homomorphic encryption and the key-value data model, indicating the goal of supporting queries and updates without revealing plaintext to servers.

Etymology and development: The concept of combining homomorphic techniques with a key-value storage model has appeared in theoretical discussions and prototype work in the early 2020s. The term HomkV is used in some papers and demonstrations to describe an architecture rather than a single product.

Architecture: A typical HomkV deployment comprises a client library, a homomorphic computation module, a distributed key-value storage layer, and a key management service. Data is encrypted client-side before being written to storage. The computation module translates supported operations—such as addition, aggregation, and simple comparisons—into ciphertext operations that the chosen encryption scheme can perform. Results are sent back to the client for decryption.

Operation model: Applications issue queries against the key-value store; the server-side components perform homomorphic computations on ciphertext, returning encrypted results. Because the operations are limited by the capabilities of the underlying scheme, not all queries are feasible, and some require client-side post-processing.

Security and limitations: The security model typically assumes semi-honest or honest-but-curious servers. Overheads in computation and data expansion are substantial, and current schemes constrain the set of efficient operations. Scalability remains an active area of research.

Status and usage: HomkV remains largely experimental and conceptual, with no universal standard. It is discussed mainly in academic contexts as a building block for privacy-preserving analytics on encrypted data.

See also: homomorphic encryption, encrypted databases, secure multiparty computation.