System and method for manipulating and managing computer archive files

• US 20060143714A1
• 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:
  US11/358,318
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143714A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• 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 storing security information for use in accessing a Zip archive:

associating security information with a Zip archive; and

storing said security information in a repository inside of said archive.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said .Zip archive includes a file and said repository is separate from said file.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said repository is encrypted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said repository resides on a computing device.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said repository resides on a portable storage device.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein said repository is a shared repository.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is used to access said shared repository.

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

18. The method of claim 16 wherein said data includes a user token.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein said user token is a Universal Serial Bus token.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein said data includes a portable token.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein said portable token is a portable Smart Card.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein said data includes biometric data.

23. The method of claim 16 wherein said data includes a password.

24. The method of claim 16 wherein said data includes a Personal Identification Number code.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein said repository is accessible by a plurality of computing devices.

26. A method for accessing a .Zip archive, said method including:

receiving access data from a user seeking to gain access to a .Zip archive;

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

providing access to said .Zip archive based on said access control decision.

27. A method for controlling access to a .Zip archive, said method including:

associating security information with a .Zip archive;

storing said security information in a repository inside of said .Zip archive.

receiving an access request for said Zip archive, said access request including access data;

comparing said access data to said security information stored in said repository to determine if said access data matches said security information; and

providing access to said Zip archive when said access data matches said security information.

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

providing access to a host application;

forming an enhanced host application by combining said host application with an archive management application;

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

using said enhanced host application to compare said access data to security information stored in a repository in said archive to determine an access control decision; and

providing access to said archive based on said access control decision using said enhanced host application