Trustworthy timestamps and certifiable clocks using logs linked by cryptographic hashes

• US 8,006,094 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2007
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Piersol, Kurt, Savitzky, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): PYZOCHA, MICHAEL J
• Application Number:
  US11/677,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,644 Days
• Field of Search: 713/176, 713/178, 713/400
• US Class Current: 713/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/725 operating on a secure reference time value
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A method and apparatus for creating and/or using trustworthy timestamps and certifiable clocks using logs linked by cryptographic hashes. In one embodiment, the method comprises maintaining a first, chained-hash log; associating a first clock with the chained-hash log, and entangling the first log; with a second by adding a time-stamped synchronization entry to the chained-hash log, where the synchronization entry has a second time indication associated with the second log and a hash of one or more entries in the first log.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, by a device that logs event times and document hashes, a first log of the event times and document hashes in a chained-hash format;

associating, by the device, a first clock with the first log;

entangling, by the device, the first log with a second log maintained by another device by adding a time-stamped synchronization entry to the first log, the time-stamped synchronization entry having a time indication associated with a second clock from the another device maintaining the second log and a hash of the second log, wherein the second clock from the another device is a trustworthy clock;

tracing, by the device, the entangling of the first log back to the second clock that is trustworthy;

determining, by the device, a level of accuracy of the first clock based on an assessment of accuracy of the second clock that is trustworthy; and

determining reliability of timestamps in the first log based on observed accuracy of the second clock and a reputation of the another device that maintains the second log.

2. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the hash of the second log is a result of applying a hash to all entries in the first log.

3. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the hash of the second log is a result of applying a hash to a previous entry in the first log.

4. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising using results of the tracing the entanglement back to the second clock that is trustworthy to prove a version of a document on the device existed at an identified time.

5. The method defined in claim 4 wherein the identified time comprises a time on or before a date.

6. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising annotating entries in the first log with corrections to previously-issued timestamps in the entries based on results of the tracing the entanglement back to the second trustworthy clock.

7. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising determining a bound on accuracy of the first clock based on an assessment of accuracy of the second clock.

8. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising determining a measure of clock drift and estimating an offset between the first clock and the second clock using synchronization points resulting from synchronizing the first and second logs.

9. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising adding a time-stamped log entry into the second log containing an indication of the first clock of the first log and a hash of the first event log, such that log entries in the first and second logs are entangled.

10. The method defined in claim 9 wherein the second log comprises a hash-connected chain of entries.

11. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the first log comprises one or more entries, and further wherein at least one of the one or more entries comprises one or more event times and document hashes.

12. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising annotating one or more entries in the first log with a correction.

13. The method defined in claim 12 wherein the correction is based on an identified difference between the first clock and an indication of time of the second clock.

14. The method defined in claim 1 wherein hashes in the first log are cryptographic hashes.

15. A method comprising:

synchronizing, by a device that logs event times and document hashes, a first hash-chained log with a second hash-chained log by adding a time-stamped log entry into the first log containing a first time indication of a clock associated with the second log;

producing, by the device, one or more document timestamps that are traceable to a trusted clock source by referencing a cross-connection of the first and second logs created by the synchronization of the first log with the second log; and

determining, by the device, a level of accuracy of the clock based on an assessment of accuracy of a clock of the trusted clock source; and

determining reliability of timestamps in the first log based on observed accuracy of the second clock and a reputation of the another device that maintains the second log.

16. The method defined in claim 15 wherein the time-stamped log entry includes a hash of the second log.

17. The method defined in claim 15 wherein the document timestamps have provable error bounds using the first and second logs.

18. A method comprising:

exchanging, by a first device that logs event times and document hashes, log information to synchronize a pair of hash-chained logs that each have clocks used for time-stamping entries in each hash-chained log; and

placing, by the first device, a bound on accuracy of a clock associated with a first log in the pair of logs based on an assessment of accuracy of a clock associated with a second log in the pair of logs;

wherein reliability of timestamps in the first log is based on the assessed accuracy of the second clock and a reputation of a second device that is considered trustworthy and that maintains the second log.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

updating one or more of the clocks; and

correcting one or more log entries one or more of the logs based on the updated clock.

20. The method defined in claim 19 wherein correcting one or more log entries of the one or more logs based on the updated one or more clocks comprises annotating the one or more log entries with corrections.

21. The method defined in claim 19 further comprising connecting to the second device, wherein updating one or more of the clocks includes updating a first clock used by the first device when time-stamping entries in its log by using a second clock associated with the second device.

22. The method defined in claim 21 wherein the trustworthy second device is a server.