System and method for manipulating and managing computer archive files

• US 8,230,482 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PKWARE, Inc. (PKW Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Peterson, James C., Peterson, Karen L., Basin, Yuri, Beirne, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodarzi, Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHEHNI, GHAZAL B
• Application Number:
  US11/358,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20060143691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,345 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 709/206, 713/159, 726 17- 19, 375/346, 380/282
• US Class Current: 726/2
• 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 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• 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 accessing a .ZIP archive file on a computer, said method including:

receiving a request from a first user to access a .ZIP archive file on a computer, said request including first access data;

comparing, using a computer, said first access data to first security information stored in a repository inside said .ZIP archive file on a computer-readable medium to determine a first access control decision;

providing access to second security information inside said repository inside said .ZIP archive file based on said first access control decision;

receiving, from a second user, second access data;

comparing, using said computer, said second access data to said second security information stored in a repository inside said .ZIP archive file to determine a second access control decision; and

providing access to said .ZIP archive file based on said second access control decision.

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

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said repository is accessible from a remote location.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said repository is accessible from a plurality of locations.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes a digital certificate.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes a password.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes a plurality of passwords.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes a private key.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes a public key.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes a contingency key.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes key material.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes a segmented key.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first security information and said second security information includes biometric data.

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

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

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

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is used to access said shared repository.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first access data and said second access data includes a user token.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said user token is a Universal Serial Bus token.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first access data and said second access data includes a portable token.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said portable token is a portable Smart Card.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first access data and said second access data includes biometric data.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first access data and said second access data includes a password.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said first access data and said second access data includes a Personal Identification Number code.