System and method for manipulating and managing computer archive files

• US 20060143199A1
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peterson, James C., Basin, Yuri, Beirne, Michael J., Peterson, Karen L.
• Application Number:
  US11/358,498
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143199A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1744 using compression, e.g. sparse files
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/30 Compression speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N; Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/30 Compression, e.g. Merkle-Damgard construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide an archive management application that operates within a host application to provide access to an archive and/or allow access to and/or modification of files in an archive using the host application'"'"'s interface, instead of operating as a separate standalone archive management application. In an embodiment of the present invention, a file archiving system may include a user interface component, a file management component and a compression/extraction engine component. The user interface component may include an enhanced user interface of a host application that provides an interface for a user. The file management component may include a central directory that provides a representation of the contents of an archive. The compression/extraction engine component may include a file size module and/or a security module. The file size module may be used to compress and/or decompress a file in an archive. The security module may be used to encrypt, decrypt, digitally sign and/or authenticate a file in an archive.

Claims

1. A method for accessing an archive, said method including:

receiving a request to access an archive, said request including access data;

comparing said access data to security information stored in said archive to determine an access control decision; and

providing access to said archive based on said access control decision,

wherein said security information includes a plurality of passwords and access to said archive is provided when said access data matches any of said plurality of passwords.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information is stored in a repository in said archive.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said archive includes a file and said repository is separate from said file.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said repository is encrypted.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein said repository is accessible by a plurality of computing devices.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein said repository is accessible from a remote location.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein said repository is accessible from a plurality of locations.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes a digital certificate.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes a password.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes a plurality of passwords.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes a private key.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes a public key.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes a contingency key.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes key material.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes a segmented key.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said security information includes biometric data.

17. The method of claim 2 wherein said repository resides on a computing device.

18. The method of claim 2 wherein said repository resides on a portable storage device.

19. The method of claim 2 wherein said repository is a shared repository.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is used to access said shared repository.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein access to said archive is restricted to users providing access data matching said security information.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein said data includes a user token.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said user token is a Universal Serial Bus token.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein said data includes a portable token.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein said portable token is a portable Smart Card.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein said data includes biometric data.

27. The method of claim 21 wherein said data includes a password.

28. The method of claim 21 wherein said data includes a Personal Identification Number code.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein said archive is a Zip archive.

30. A method for accessing an archive, said method including:

receiving a request to access an archive, said request including access data;

comparing said access data to security information stored in a repository outside said archive to determine an access control decision; and

providing access to said archive based on said access control decision,

wherein said security information includes a plurality of passwords and access to said archive is provided when said access data matches any of said plurality of passwords.

31. A method for storing security information for use in accessing an archive:

associating first security information with an archive;

associating second security information with said archive; and

storing said first security information and said second security information in said archive,

wherein either of said first security information and said second security information are usable in determining whether to grant access to said archive.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein said security information is stored in a repository in said archive.

33. A method for storing security information for use in accessing an archive:

associating first security information with an archive;

associating second security information with said archive; and

storing said first security information and said second security information in a repository outside of said archive,

wherein either of said first security information and said second security information are usable in determining whether to grant access to said archive.

34. A method for controlling access to an archive, said method including:

associating first security information and second security information with an archive;

storing said first security information in a first repository outside of said archive;

storing said second security information in at least one of said first repository and a second repository;

receiving an access request from a user, said access request including access data;

comparing said access data to at least one of said first security information and said second security information to determine if said access data matches at least one of said first security information and said second security information; and

providing access to said archive when said access data matches at least one of said first security information and said second security information.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein said second repository is outside of said archive.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein said second repository is inside said archive.

37. A method for controlling access to an archive, said method including:

associating first security information and second security information with an archive;

storing said first security information in a first repository inside of said archive;

storing said second security information in at least one of said first repository and a second repository;

receiving an access request from a user, said access request including access data;

comparing said access data to at least one of said first security information and said second security information to determine if said access data matches at least one of said first security information and said second security information; and

providing access to said archive when said access data matches at least one of said first security information and said second security information.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein said second repository is outside of said archive.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein said second repository is inside said archive.