Cryptographic access and labeling system
First Claim
1. A cryptographic system which encrypts and decrypts a message of digital information having a trailer in which a plurality of labels are located so as to be individually retrievable, said cryptographic system comprising:
- a data key storage means for retrievably storing a data key;
a label storing means for individually, retrievably storing a plurality of labels, each label containing rational information relevant to the message;
an input means for providing an input passphrase from a user, said passphrase comprising at least one password;
a communicating element which manipulates, stores and retrieves the message;
a data base containing a plurality of label strings and a plurality of corresponding weighting factors;
a program which directs the operation of said communicating element, said program having a plurality of instruction sets including;
an instruction set for directing said communicating element to retrieve said data key from said data key storage means,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to receive said input passphrase,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to use said data key and said input passphrase to determine if the user should be granted access to further parts of the program,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to manipulate said data key and said input passphrase to generate a vector which is called the "gamma vector" herein,an instruction set for creating a plurality of separately encrypted, identifiable and addressable, and concatenated labels, each label having a known number of bytes;
an instruction set for directing said communicating element to utilize said gamma vector for encrypting each label,an instruction set for attaching said plurality of encrypted labels at a known location as a message trailer to said message;
said attaching instruction set including a subset of instruction permitting a user of said cryptographics system to access said data base and to select a label string depending upon the corresponding weighting factors;
an instruction set, for locating the encrypted labels in an encrypted message trailer, and for retrievably storing each label;
an instruction set for directing said communicating element to utilize said gamma vector for decrypting each label,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to use two of said plurality of labels and said gamma vector to generate a message key, andan instruction set for directing said communicating element to use said message key with an encryption/decryption algorithm to encrypt and decrypt the message; and
an expert system means for evaluating said weighting factors of the user selected label strings to determine if the combination of selected label strings is a permitted combination.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An integrated, modular computer program system provides for the encryption and decryption of files utilizing conventional encryption algorithms and a relational key generated by the system. The computer program system also generates a series of labels that are encrypted and appended as a trailer to the encrypted message. The encrypted labels provide a history behind the particular encryption and they can be individually selected, separated, and decrypted from the total file. A rule based expert system is utilized as an intelligent label selection system to minimize message sensitivity. An access control module permits a user with a preassigned passphrase to have access to the encryption or decryption portion of the program by comparing a generated vector or key with a partially decrypted version of a second vector or key stored on a portable storage medium such as a floppy disk. If successful, the access control module creates a main key that is then used throughout the remainder of the program to encrypt or decrypt the labels. Part of the encryption or decryption process utilizes an internal, reproducible, but not reversible scrambling subroutine in which the bytes of an initializing vector are successively Exclusive ORed with one another and then the result concatenated to the initializing vector until all of the bytes have been so treated, and then the process repeated an integral number of times depending upon an input variable called a spinup number.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. A cryptographic system which encrypts and decrypts a message of digital information having a trailer in which a plurality of labels are located so as to be individually retrievable, said cryptographic system comprising:
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a data key storage means for retrievably storing a data key; a label storing means for individually, retrievably storing a plurality of labels, each label containing rational information relevant to the message; an input means for providing an input passphrase from a user, said passphrase comprising at least one password; a communicating element which manipulates, stores and retrieves the message; a data base containing a plurality of label strings and a plurality of corresponding weighting factors; a program which directs the operation of said communicating element, said program having a plurality of instruction sets including; an instruction set for directing said communicating element to retrieve said data key from said data key storage means, an instruction set for directing said communicating element to receive said input passphrase, an instruction set for directing said communicating element to use said data key and said input passphrase to determine if the user should be granted access to further parts of the program, an instruction set for directing said communicating element to manipulate said data key and said input passphrase to generate a vector which is called the "gamma vector" herein, an instruction set for creating a plurality of separately encrypted, identifiable and addressable, and concatenated labels, each label having a known number of bytes; an instruction set for directing said communicating element to utilize said gamma vector for encrypting each label, an instruction set for attaching said plurality of encrypted labels at a known location as a message trailer to said message; said attaching instruction set including a subset of instruction permitting a user of said cryptographics system to access said data base and to select a label string depending upon the corresponding weighting factors; an instruction set, for locating the encrypted labels in an encrypted message trailer, and for retrievably storing each label; an instruction set for directing said communicating element to utilize said gamma vector for decrypting each label, an instruction set for directing said communicating element to use two of said plurality of labels and said gamma vector to generate a message key, and an instruction set for directing said communicating element to use said message key with an encryption/decryption algorithm to encrypt and decrypt the message; and an expert system means for evaluating said weighting factors of the user selected label strings to determine if the combination of selected label strings is a permitted combination. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification