System and method for manipulating and managing computer archive files

• US 20060143251A1
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peterson, James C., Basin, Yuri, Peterson, Karen L., Beime, Michael J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,844,579 B2
• 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 providing security for an archive, said method including:

forming an archive including at least one file,

wherein said archive includes a central directory,

wherein said central directory includes security information with regard to said at least one file; and

encrypting said central directory.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said archive includes a plurality of files.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said central directory includes security information for said plurality of files.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses a digital certificate.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses a password.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses a plurality of passwords.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses a private key.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses a public key.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses a contingency key.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses a segmented key.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said encrypting uses biometric data.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said archive resides on a computing device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said archive resides on a portable storage device.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said file is compressed before placement in said archive.

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

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said central directory is separate from said file.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein said information includes at least one file-identifying characteristic.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein said information includes at least one characteristic of said file.

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

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

21. An archive security system including:

a central directory in an archive, said central directory including information with regard to at least one file included in said archive,

wherein said central directory is encrypted.

22. A method for accessing information in an archive, said method including:

receiving an archive including at least one file and an encrypted central directory, said central directory including information regarding said at least one file; and

decrypting said central directory to provide access to said information.