Private subgraph matching protocol

Abstract

In many applications, information can be stored and managed using graph data structures, and there is a rich set of graph algorithms that can be used to solve different problems. The subgraph isomorphism problem is defined as, given two graphs G and H, whether G contains a subgraph that is isomorphic to H. The problem has been well studied for many years, and it can be used for many application areas, such as cheminformatics, pattern matching, data mining and image processing. In this paper, we present a private subgraph matching protocol, which solves a special case of the subgraph isomorphism problem. The protocol allows two parties, each holding a private graph, to jointly compute whether one graph is a subgraph of the other. During the protocol, each party learns no useful information about the graph of the other party. We prove that the protocol is secure in the semi-honest setting.