Data encryption parameter dispersal

• US 10,097,518 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2013
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gladwin, S. Christopher, Abhijeet, Kumar, Dhuse, Greg, Resch, Jason K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Homayounmehr, Farid
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhu, Zhimei
• Application Number:
  US13/919,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20130275746A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,940 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/78 to assure secure storage of data address-based protection against unauthorised use of memory G06F12/14; record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/34 Encoding or coding, e.g. Huffman coding or error correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/085 Secret sharing or secret splitting, e.g. threshold schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage

Abstract

A method for securely distributing a profile within a dispersed storage network (DSN) that begins by encrypting a profile using a key. The method continues by encoding the encrypted profile in accordance with a dispersed storage error encoding function. The method continues by outputting the set of encoded profile slices to the DSN for storage therein. The method continues by encoding the key in accordance with an error encoding function and outputting the set of secure key portions to a set of devices of the DSN for storage therein. A device obtains the profile by retrieving secure key portions from the set of devices and recovering the key therefrom. The device then retrieves encoded profile slices from the DSN and decodes them to recover the encrypted profile. The device then decrypts the encrypted profile using the key to recover the profile.

Claims

1. A method for securely distributing a profile regarding a user device to another user device of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

encrypting a profile using a key to produce an encrypted profile;

encoding the encrypted profile in accordance with a dispersed storage error encoding function to produce a set of encoded profile slices;

outputting the set of encoded profile slices to storage units of the DSN for storage therein;

encoding the key in accordance with an error encoding function to produce a set of secure key portions;

outputting the set of secure key portions to a set of user devices of the DSN, wherein user devices of the set of user devices are separate devices of the DSN than storage units of the DSN, wherein a first user device of the set of user devices receives and stores a first secure key portion of the set of secure key portions and a second user device of the set of user devices receives and stores a second secure key portion of the set of secure key portions; and

obtaining the profile by one of the set of user devices by;

retrieving a threshold number of the set of secure key portions from the set of user devices;

recovering the key from the threshold number of the set of secure key portions;

retrieving a decode threshold number of the set of encoded profile slices from the DSN;

decoding the decode threshold number of the set of encoded profile slices to recover the encrypted profile; and

decrypting the encrypted profile using the key to recover the profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding the key further comprises:

encoding the key in accordance with the error encoding function, wherein the error encoding function includes one of the dispersed storage error encoding function and another dispersed storage error encoding function, and wherein the set of secure key portions includes a set of encoded key slices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding the key further comprises:

encoding the key in accordance with the error encoding function, wherein the error encoding function includes a Shamir share function and wherein the set of secure key portions includes a set of secret key shares.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of user devices comprises at least one of:

one or more storage units;

one or more user devices;

one or more storage integrity units; and

one or more managing units.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

outputting the set of encoded profile slices to the storage units of the DSN for storage therein; and

outputting the set of secure key portions to at least some of the storage units for storage therein.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

outputting the set of encoded profile slices to the set of user devices for storage therein.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile comprises one or more of:

authentication information;

permissions;

a name;

personal information;

password; and

a picture.

8. A dispersed storage network (DSN) comprises:

a plurality of user devices, wherein a first user device of the plurality of user devices securely distributes a profile regarding the first user device to another user device of the plurality of user devices;

the first user device including a first interface, a first memory, and a first processing module operably coupled to the first interface and the first memory, wherein the first processing module is operable to;

encrypt the profile using a key to produce an encrypted profile;

encode the encrypted profile in accordance with a dispersed storage error encoding function to produce a set of encoded profile slices;

output, via the first interface, the set of encoded profile slices to storage units of the DSN for storage therein;

encode the key in accordance with an error encoding function to produce a set of secure key portions;

output, via the first interface, the set of secure key portions to a set of user devices of the plurality of user devices, wherein a first user device of the set of user devices receives and stores a first secure key portion of the set of secure key portions and a second user device of the set of user devices receives and stores a second secure key portion of the set of secure key portions; and

the second user device including a second interface, a second memory, and a second processing module operably coupled to the second interface and the second memory, wherein the second processing module is operable to obtain the profile by;

retrieving, via the second interface, a threshold number of the set of secure key portions from the set of user devices, wherein user devices of the set of user devices are separate devices of the DSN than the storage units of the DSN;

recovering the key from the threshold number of the set of secure key portions;

retrieving, via the second interface, a decode threshold number of the set of encoded profile slices from the DSN;

decoding the decode threshold number of the set of encoded profile slices to recover the encrypted profile; and

decrypting the encrypted profile using the key to recover the profile.

9. The DSN of claim 8, wherein the first processing module is further operable to:

encode the key in accordance with the error encoding function, wherein the error encoding function includes one of the dispersed storage error encoding function and another dispersed storage error encoding function, and wherein the set of secure key portions includes a set of encoded key slices.

10. The DSN of claim 8, wherein the first processing module is further operable to:

encode the key in accordance with the error encoding function, wherein the error encoding function includes a Shamir share function and wherein the set of secure key portions includes a set of secret key shares.

11. The DSN of claim 8, wherein the set of user devices comprises at least one of:

one or more storage units;

one or more user devices;

one or more storage integrity units; and

one or more managing units.

12. The DSN of claim 8 further comprises:

the first processing module further operable to output, via the first interface, the set of encoded profile slices to the storage units of the DSN for storage therein; and

the second processing module further operable to output, via the second interface, the set of secure key portions to at least some of the storage units for storage therein.

13. The DSN of claim 8 further comprises:

the first processing module further operable to output, via the first interface, the set of encoded profile slices to the set of user devices for storage therein.

14. The DSN of claim 8, wherein the profile comprises one or more of:

authentication information;

permissions;

a name;

personal information;

password; and

a picture.