System and method for manipulating and managing computer archive files

• US 7,844,579 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, THU NGUYET T
• Application Number:
  US11/358,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,743 Days
• Field of Search: 707100-103, 707/204, 707/661, 707/828, 713182-186
• US Class Current: 707/661
• 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 file on a computer, said method including:

forming, on a computer, an archive file including at least one file,

wherein said file is compressed before placement in said archive file,

wherein said archive file includes a central directory,

wherein at least part of said central directory is compressed before being encrypted,

wherein said central directory includes security information with regard to said at least one file, wherein said security information includes key material that is encrypted using a public key of an individual authorized to decrypt the encrypted archive file; and

encrypting said central directory of said archive file.

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 file resides on a computing device.

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

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

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

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

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

18. The method of claim 1 wherein said archive file is a compressed archive.

19. An archive security system on a computer, said system including:

a central directory in an archive file on a computer,

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

wherein said file is compressed before placement in said archive file,

wherein at least part of said central directory is compressed before being encrypted,

wherein said security information includes key material that is encrypted using a public key of an individual authorized to decrypt the encrypted archive file, and

wherein said central directory of said archive file is encrypted.