Versioning of modifiable encrypted documents

• US 8,656,159 B1
• Filed: 10/11/2007
• Issued: 02/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Donahue, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Pearson, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jeudy, Josnel
• Application Number:
  US11/871,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032900A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,322 Days
• Field of Search: 713164-167, 713189-193, 726 27- 30, 709/217, 709223-224, 380277-286
• US Class Current: 713/165
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/10 Usage protection of distributed data files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/605 Copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/088 Usage controlling of secret information, e.g. techniques for restricting cryptographic keys to pre-authorized uses, different access levels, validity of crypto-period, different key- or password length, or different strong and weak cryptographic algorithms network architectures or network communication protocols for using time-dependent keys in a packet data network H04L63/068

Abstract

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving a modifiable electronic document. The method includes generating a new version of the modifiable electronic document. The method also includes encrypting the new version of the modifiable electronic document using an encryption key that is used to encrypt the modifiable electronic document and different versions of the modifiable electronic document. The method includes saving the new version of the modifiable electronic document.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a modifiable electronic document, the modifiable electronic document comprising a first unique document identification;

generating a new version of the modifiable electronic document;

encrypting the new version of the modifiable electronic document using an encryption key that is used to encrypt the modifiable electronic document and different versions of the modifiable electronic document;

assigning a second unique document identification to the new version of the modifiable electronic document;

assigning the first unique document identification as a parent identification to the new version of the modifiable electronic document, the parent identification being the same as the first unique document identification;

assigning the document identification of a root document from which the different versions of the modifiable electronic document are created as a root identification for the new version; and

saving the new version of the modifiable electronic document.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an instruction, from an owner of the modifiable electronic document, to modify a document control policy for the modifiable electronic document and the new version, wherein the new version was identified using the second unique document identification and the parent identification; and

updating the document control policy for the new version.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein updating the document control policy comprises revoking access to the new version of the modifiable electronic document.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an instruction, from an owner of the root document, to modify a document control policy for one or more of the different versions of the modifiable electronic document, wherein the new version was identified using the second unique document identification, the parent identification and the root identification; and

updating the document control policy for the new version.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein updating the document control policy comprises revoking access to the new version of the modifiable electronic document.

6. The method of claim 4, updating the document control policy comprises adding an access right to one or more of the different versions of the modifiable electronic document.

7. A method comprising:

receiving, at a document control server from an owner of a modifiable electronic document, a command to modify a document control policy of at least one version of the modifiable electronic document, wherein the modifiable electronic document and the at least one version are encrypted using a same encryption key, wherein the modifiable electronic document and the at least one version each comprise a unique document identification, an identification of a parent document and an identification of a root document;

and transmitting the modified document control policy to a number of client devices that have stored the at least one version of the modifiable electronic document.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising traversing a version tree for the modifiable electronic document, using at least one of the identification of the parent document and the identification of the root document, the traversing of the version tree to determine the at least one version of the modifiable electronic document.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein a command to modify the document control policy comprises a revocation of the modifiable electronic document and at least one version of the modifiable electronic document.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions which when executed by a machine causes the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a command to save a modifiable electronic document;

performing the following operations in response to a determination that the modifiable electronic document is a new version of a parent electronic document,

assigning unique document identification to the modifiable electronic document;

assigning, to the modifiable electronic document, a unique document identification of the parent electronic document as a parent identification; and

assigning, to the modifiable electronic document, a root identification of a version tree to which the modifiable electronic document and the parent electronic document are within;

encrypting the modifiable electronic document using an encryption key that is used to encrypt the parent electronic document; and

saving the modifiable electronic document.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising storing the unique document identification, the parent identification and the root identification as part of metadata for the modifiable electronic document.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising encrypting the modifiable electronic document with the same encryption key.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising revoking access to the modifiable electronic document and any versions of the modifiable electronic document based on a revocation from an owner of an electronic document that is direct ancestor of the modifiable electronic document.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising modifying a document control policy of the modifiable electronic document based on a modification of the document control policy by an owner of an electronic document that is an ancestor of the modifiable electronic document.

15. A non-transitory machine readable medium including instructions which when executed by a machine causes the machine, to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a document control server from an owner of a modifiable electronic document, a command to shred access to any versions of the modifiable electronic document, wherein the modifiable electronic document and any versions are encrypted using a same encryption key, wherein the modifiable electronic document and the at least one version each comprise a unique document identification, an identification of a parent document and an identification of a root document; and

deleting the same encryption key that is stored at a location from a group consisting of the document control server and a centralized storage location.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the same encryption key is not stored in client devices that store the modifiable electronic document and any versions of the modifiable electronic document.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the modifiable electronic, document and any versions of the modifiable electronic document are only accessible using the same encryption key.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein any versions of the modifiable electronic document are stored on at least one client device and wherein a copy of the same encryption key is not stored on the at least one client device.

19. A server comprising:

a machine-readable medium to store a version tree to track versions of a modifiable electronic document and a shared encryption key that is used to encrypt versions of the modifiable electronic document;

and a document control module executed on a hardware processor to control access to the modifiable electronic document and versions of the modifiable electronic document, wherein the document control module is to receive a command to modify a document control policy from an owner of the modifiable electronic document, the document control module to traverse the version tree to locate versions of the modifiable electronic document, wherein the document control module is to transmit the modified document control policy to a number of client devices that have stored at least one version of the modifiable electronic document, and wherein metadata for versions of a modifiable electronic document comprise an identification of the version of the modifiable electronic document, an identification of a parent of the version of the modifiable electronic document and an identification of a root document of the version tree.

20. The server of claim 19, wherein the document control module is to traverse the version tree using at least one of the identification of the parent of the modifiable electronic document and the identification of the root document of the version tree.

21. The server of claim 19, wherein the modified document control policy comprises a revocation of access to versions of the modifiable electronic document.

22. The server of claim 19, wherein the modified document control policy comprises an addition of an access right to versions of the modifiable electronic document.