Encrypted key cache

• US 7,886,364 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2005
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Theimer, Marvin M., Bolosky, William J., Douceur, John R., Adya, Atul
• Primary Examiner(s): Pyzocha; Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fields; Courtney D
• Application Number:
  US11/206,556
• Publication Number:
  US 20060026425A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,000 Days
• Field of Search: 726/28, 713/194, 380/273, 380/277, 725/32
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0825 using asymmetric-key encryption or public key infrastructure [PKI], e.g. key signature or public key certificates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage

Abstract

A file that has been encrypted using a symmetric key and that has a corresponding access control entry with the symmetric key encrypted using the public key of a public/private key pair can be accessed. An encrypted key cache is also accessed to determine whether an access control entry to symmetric key mapping exists in the cache for the access control entry corresponding to the file. If such a mapping exists in the cache, then the mapped-to symmetric key is obtained form the cache, otherwise the encrypted symmetric key is decrypted using the private key of the public/private key pair. The encrypted key cache itself can also be encrypted and stored as an encrypted file.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer storage media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer, cause the one or more processors to perform the following acts:

receive a request, corresponding to a user, to access an encrypted file;

obtain an access control entry (ACE) from an access control list (ACL) of a plurality of ACEs, the ACE corresponding to both the user and the requested encrypted file, wherein the ACE includes an encrypted version of a symmetric key that was used to encrypt the encrypted file;

access an encrypted key cache, the encrypted key cache having multiple ACE-to-symmetric-key-mapped entries, each entry having a reference to one or more ACEs mapped to at least one unencrypted symmetric key;

identify at least one entry of the multiple ACE-to-symmetric-key-mapped entries of the encrypted key cache that has a reference to an ACE that both matches the ACE of the ACL and is mapped to an unencrypted symmetric key that matches the symmetric key that was used to encrypt the encrypted file;

responsive to identifying the at least one identified entry, decrypt the encrypted file using the mapped unencrypted symmetric key from the identified entry of the encrypted key cache; and

responsive to failing to identify the at least one identified entry, decrypt the encrypted symmetric key from the ACE of the ACL and decrypt the unencrypted file using the decrypted symmetric key.

2. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein decrypting the encrypted symmetric key comprises using a private key of a public/private key pair associated with the user to decrypt the symmetric key.

3. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform the following acts:

receive the access control list;

select one of the plurality of access control entries that corresponds to the user; and

use, as the access control entry, the selected one of the plurality of access control entries.

4. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform, responsive to failing to identify the at least one identified entry, the following:

create, after decrypting the encrypted symmetric key, a new mapping in the encrypted key cache that maps the access control entry to the symmetric key.

5. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform the following acts:

generate a file including the encrypted key cache;

encrypt the generated file using a private key of a public/private key pair associated with the user; and

store the encrypted file.

6. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform the following acts:

generate a file including the encrypted key cache;

encrypt the generated file with another symmetric key;

generate a new access control entry corresponding to the generated file;

encrypt the other symmetric key with a public key of a public/private key pair associated with the user; and

store both the encrypted other symmetric key and an identifier of the user corresponding to the key cache in the new access control entry.

7. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform the following acts:

obtain, in encrypted form, the encrypted key cache from a remote storage device;

decrypt the key cache using a private key of a public/private key pair associated with the user; and

use, as the encrypted key cache, the decrypted key cache.

8. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein decrypting the key cache comprises:

decrypting, using the private key, a symmetric key corresponding to the key cache; and

decrypting, using the symmetric key corresponding to the key cache, the key cache.

9. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises indexing into the encrypted key cache based on the encrypted symmetric key of the access control entry.

10. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises indexing into the encrypted key cache based on a user name included in the access control entry.

11. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform the following acts:

removing one entry from the encrypted key cache while leaving one or more other entries in the encrypted key cache.

12. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the removing comprises removing the one entries entry if the one entries entry has not been accessed within a certain time frame.

13. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the removing comprises removing the one entries entry if the encrypted key cache is already full and a new entries entry is to be saved in the encrypted key cache.

15. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein each plurality of access control entries for each user corresponds to a separate type of access to the file.

16. One or more non-transitory computer storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein a hash of the file is used to generate the symmetric key for the file.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a request, from a user, to access an encrypted file;

accessing an encrypted key cache in encrypted form from a memory configured to store the encrypted key cache, the encrypted key cache corresponding to the user and containing multiple entries, each entry corresponding to the user and one or more of multiple encrypted files, each entry having an unencrypted symmetric key used to encrypt the one or more multiple encrypted files that correspond to the unencrypted symmetric key'"'"'s entry;

decrypting the encrypted key cache using a private key of a public/private key pair, the public/private key pair corresponding to the user; and

identifying at least one entry of the multiple entries of the encrypted key cache having an unencrypted symmetric key that was used to encrypt the requested encrypted file.

17. A method as recited in claim 14 further comprising, in response to a failure to identify at least one entry, decrypting an encrypted symmetric key that corresponds to the encrypted file, the decrypting includes using the private key.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, further comprising storing, in the encrypted key cache, a mapping of the access control entry corresponding to the other file to the decrypted symmetric key.

19. A method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

removing an entry from the encrypted key cache while leaving one or more other entries in the encrypted key cache.

20. A method comprising:

accessing a key cache from a memory configured to store the key cache, wherein the key cache maintains a plurality of access control entry to symmetric key mappings corresponding to a plurality of files accessible to a user in a distributed file system, wherein each of the plurality of mappings identifies a symmetric key used to decrypt a file corresponding to the mapping;

generating an encrypted file that includes the key cache and that is encrypted using a symmetric key associated with the key cache;

encrypting the symmetric key associated with the key cache using a public key of a public/private key pair, the public/private key pair corresponding to the user;

storing the encrypted symmetric key associated with the key cache in an access control entry corresponding to the encrypted file; and

storing both the encrypted file and the access control entry corresponding to the encrypted file in the distributed file system.