Efficient secret-key encrypted secure slice

• US 10,326,740 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2017
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2016
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Resch, Jason K., Seaborn, Mark D., Volvovski, Ilya
• Primary Examiner(s): Naghdali, Khalil
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wade, Shaqueal D
• Application Number:
  US15/410,329
• Publication Number:
  US 20170250965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0623 in relation to content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0629 : Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 : Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 : Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 : Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 : Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 : Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 : Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/04 : Architecture, e.g. interconnection topology
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/084 : Backpropagation, e.g. using gradient descent
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/10 : Interfaces, programming languages or software development kits, e.g. for simulating neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 : Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 : Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 : Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/1515 : Reed-Solomon codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/2909 : Product codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/3761 : using code combining, i.e. using combining of codeword portions which may have been transmitted separately, e.g. Digital Fountain codes, Raptor codes or Luby Transform [LT] codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/616 : Matrix operations, especially for generator matrices or check matrices, e.g. column or row permutations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 : wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 : for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 : Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 : involving random numbers or seeds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 : Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/14 : using a plurality of keys or algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3242 : involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC

Abstract

An encryption module encrypts starting data using a random key to produce encrypted data. A hash module performs a secure hash function on the encrypted data using a secret key to produce a hash value. Processing circuitry masks the random key using the hash value to produce a masked random key, and combines the encrypted data and the masked random key to produce a secure package. A distributed storage and task module encodes the secure package to produce a set of encoded data slices. The secret key and a decode threshold number of the encoded data slices included in the set of encoded data slices are sufficient to recover the secure package and the starting data. The set of encoded data slices is stored in a set of storage units.

Claims

1. A method for use in a dispersed storage network (DSN) the method comprising:

providing a random key to both an encryption module and a masking module;

at the encryption module;

encrypting starting data using the random key to produce encrypted data;

transmitting the encrypted data to a keyed-hash module and to a combining module;

at the keyed-hash module;

performing a secure hash function on the encrypted data using a secret key to produce a hash value;

transmitting the hash value to the masking module;

at the masking module;

masking the random key using the hash value to produce a masked random key;

transmitting the masked random key to the combining module;

at the combining module;

combining the encrypted data and the masked random key to produce a secure package;

transmitting the secure package to a client module;

at the client module;

encoding the secure package to produce a set of encoded data slices, wherein the secret key and a decode threshold number of encoded data slices included in the set of encoded data slices are sufficient to recover the secure package and the starting data, and wherein the decode threshold number is greater than one and less than a total number of encoded data slices in the set of encoded data slices;

transmitting the set of encoded data slices to a DSN memory; and

at the DSN memory, storing the set of encoded data slices in a set of storage units.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recovering the secure package by decoding the decode threshold number of the encoded data slices; and

recovering the starting data from the secure package using the secret key.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein recovering the starting data further comprises:

de-combining the secure package into the encrypted data and the masked random key.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

using the secret key to recover the hash value;

using the hash value to de-mask the masked random key and generate a recovered random key; and

decrypting the encrypted data using the recovered random key.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein masking the random key includes:

performing one of an exclusive OR (XOR) function or a modulo addition.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein combining includes:

one of appending, prepending, inserting, or interleaving.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding the secure package to produce the set of encoded data slices includes using an erasure code algorithm.

8. A dispersed storage network (DSN) comprising:

an encryption module implemented using a processor and associated memory, the encryption module configured to;

receive a random key provided to both the encryption module and to a masking module;

encrypt starting data using the random key to produce encrypted data;

transmit the encrypted data to a hash module and to a combining module;

the hash module implemented using the processor and the associated memory, the hash module configured to;

perform a secure hash function on the encrypted data using a secret key to produce a hash value;

transmit the hash value to the masking module;

processing circuitry configured to implement the masking module, the masking module configured to;

receive the random key;

mask the random key using the hash value to produce a masked random key;

transmit the masked random key to the combining module;

the processing circuitry further configured to implement the combining module, the combining module configured to;

combine the encrypted data and the masked random key to produce a secure package;

transmit the secure package to a distributed storage and task module;

the distributed storage and task module configured to;

encode the secure package to produce a set of encoded data slices, wherein the secret key and a decode threshold number of encoded data slices included in the set of encoded data slices are sufficient to recover the secure package and the starting data, and wherein the decode threshold number is greater than one and less than a total number of encoded data slices in the set of encoded data slices;

transmit the set of encoded data slices to a DSN memory; and

processing circuitry configured to implement the DSN memory, the DSN memory configured to store the set of encoded data slices in a set of storage units.

9. The dispersed storage network of claim 8, further comprising processing circuitry configured to:

recover the secure package by decoding the decode threshold number of the encoded data slices; and

recover the starting data from the secure package using the secret key.

10. The dispersed storage network of claim 9, wherein the processing circuitry configured to recover the starting data is further configured to:

de-combine the secure package into the encrypted data and the masked random key.

11. The dispersed storage network of claim 10, wherein the processing circuitry configured to recover the starting data is further configured to:

use the secret key to recover the hash value;

use the hash value to de-mask the masked random key and generate a recovered random key; and

decrypt the encrypted data using the recovered random key.

12. The dispersed storage network of claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry configured to mask the random key is further configured to:

perform one of an exclusive OR (XOR) function or a modulo addition.

13. The dispersed storage network of claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry configured to combine is further configured to perform one of the following:

append the masked random key to the encrypted data;

prepend the masked random key to the encrypted data;

insert the masked random key to the encrypted data;

or

interleave the masked random key within the encrypted data.

14. The dispersed storage network of claim 8, wherein the distributed storage and task module uses an erasure code algorithm to encode the secure package to produce the set of encoded data slices.

15. A method for use in a dispersed storage network (DSN) the method comprising:

providing a random key to both an encryption module and a masking module;

at the encryption module;

encrypting starting data using the random key to produce encrypted data;

transmitting the encrypted data to a keyed-hash module and to a combining module;

at the keyed-hash module;

performing a secure hash function on the encrypted data using a secret key to produce a hash value;

transmitting the hash value to the masking module;

at the masking module;

masking the random key using the hash value to produce a masked random key;

transmitting the masked random key to the combining module;

at the combining module;

combining the encrypted data and the masked random key to produce a secure package;

transmitting the secure package to a client module;

at the client module;

encoding the secure package to produce a set of encoded data slices, wherein the secret key and a decode threshold number of encoded data slices included in the set of encoded data slices are sufficient to recover the secure package and the starting data, and wherein the decode threshold number is greater than one and less than a total number of encoded data slices in the set of encoded data slices;

transmitting the set of encoded data slices to a DSN memory;

at the DSN memory, storing the set of encoded data slices in a set of storage units; and

recovering the starting data using at least the decode threshold number of the encoded data slices and the secret key.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

recovering the secure package by decoding the decode threshold number of the encoded data slices; and

recovering the starting data from the secure package using the secret key.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein recovering the starting data further comprises:

de-combining the secure package into the encrypted data and the masked random key.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

using the secret key to recover the hash value;

using the hash value to de-mask the masked random key and generate a recovered random key; and

decrypting the encrypted data using the recovered random key.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein combining includes:

one of appending, prepending, inserting, or interleaving.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein encoding the secure package to produce the set of encoded data slices includes using an erasure code algorithm.