Utilizing a deterministic all or nothing transformation in a dispersed storage network

• US 9,231,768 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2011
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Resch, Jason K., Leggette, Wesley
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, ELLEN C
• Application Number:
  US13/154,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20110311051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,673 Days
• Field of Search: 380/270, 380/273, 713/165, 713/171
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1092 Rebuilding, e.g. when physically replacing a failing disk
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/141 for bus or memory accesses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/167 Error detection by comparing the memory output
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/137 Hash-based content-based indexing of textual data G06F16/31
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• 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 2211/1028 Distributed, i.e. distributed RAID systems with parity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/043 of tables, e.g. lookup, substitution or mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/30 Compression, e.g. Merkle-Damgard construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/34 Encoding or coding, e.g. Huffman coding or error correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/06 for supporting key management in a packet data network cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key management H04L9/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3242 involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 : using challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/041 : Key generation or derivation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/0431 : Key distribution or pre-distribution; Key agreement
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 : Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 : Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning

Abstract

A method begins by a processing module generating a deterministic key from data and encrypting the data using the deterministic key to produce encrypted data. The method continues with the processing module generating transformed data from the encrypted data and generating a masked key from the deterministic key and the transformed data. The method continues with the processing module combining the masked key and the encrypted data to produce a secure package.

Claims

1. A method for execution by a computing device, the method comprises:

performing a function to generate a deterministic key from a data segment, in which the data segment is one of a plurality of data segments generated by segmenting a data object and in which the data segments are processed separately for storage to store the data object;

encrypting the data segment using the deterministic key to produce encrypted data;

performing a transform function on the encrypted data to produce transformed data;

performing a masking function on the deterministic key and the transformed data to generate a masked key;

combining the masked key and the encrypted data to produce a secure package; and

error encoding the secure package to generate a plurality of data slices for storage, wherein a threshold number of data slices of the secure package are needed to reconstruct the secure package when retrieved, the threshold number of data slices being less than the plurality of data slices generated.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

outputting the plurality of data slices to a wireless communication device for wireless communication of the plurality of data slices.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

outputting the plurality of data slices to a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory for storage therein.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

receiving a second plurality of data slices to recover a second secure package from a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory; and

facilitating storage of the plurality of data slices in the DSN memory when the secure package compares favorably to the second secure package.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing the function to generate the deterministic key comprises:

performing one or more of a hashing function, a checksum function, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), a mask generating function (MGF), and a compression function on the data segment to produce the deterministic key.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transform function comprises at least one of:

a hashing function, a checksum function, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), a mask generating function (MGF), and a compression function.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing the masking function to generate the masked key comprises at least one of:

exclusive ORing (XOR) the deterministic key and the transformed data;

adding the deterministic key and a modulo conversion of the transformed data; and

modifying the deterministic key to produce a modified key and exclusive ORing the modified key and the transformed data.

8. A method for execution by a computing device, the method comprises:

retrieving a threshold number of data slices to recover a secure package, in which the secure package was initially error encoded to generate a plurality of data slices for storage, wherein the threshold number of data slices of the plurality of data slices are needed to reconstruct the secure package when retrieved, the threshold number of data slices being less than the plurality of data slices generated;

extracting a masked key and encrypted data from the secure package;

performing a transform function on the encrypted data to produce transformed data;

performing a de-masking function on the masked key and the transformed data to generate a deterministic key; and

decrypting the encrypted data based on the deterministic key to recover a data segment of a data object, in which the data segment is one of a plurality of data segments generated by segmenting the data object, wherein the data segments were processed separately for storage to store the data object.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transform function comprises at least one of:

a hashing function, a checksum function, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), a mask generating function (MGF), and a compression function.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the generating the deterministic key comprises at least one of:

exclusive ORing (XOR) the masked key and the transformed data;

subtracting a modulo conversion of the transformed data from the masked key; and

exclusive ORing the transformed data and the masked key to produce a modified key; and

modifying the modified key to produce the deterministic key.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprises:

transforming the data segment into a validation key utilizing a hashing function; and

indicating that the data segment is valid when the validation key compares favorably to the deterministic key.

12. A computer comprises:

an interface;

a memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the memory and the interface, wherein the processing module is operable to;

perform a function to generate a deterministic key from a data segment, in which the data segment is one of a plurality of data segments generated by segmenting a data object and in which the data segments are processed separately for storage to store the data object;

encrypt the data segment using the deterministic key to produce encrypted data;

perform a transform function on the encrypted data produce transformed data;

perform a masking function on the deterministic key and the transformed data to generate a masked key;

combine the masked key and the encrypted data to produce a secure package; and

error encode the secure package to generate a plurality of data slices for storage, wherein a threshold number of data slices of the secure package are needed to reconstruct the secure package when retrieved, the threshold number of data slices being less than the plurality of data slices generated.

13. The computer of claim 12, wherein the processing module further functions to:

output, via the interface, the plurality of data slices to a wireless communication device for wireless communication of the plurality of data slices.

14. The computer of claim 12, wherein the processing module further functions to:

output, via the interface, the plurality of data slices to a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory for storage therein.

15. The computer of claim 12, wherein the processing module further functions to:

receive, via the interface, a second plurality of data slices to recover a second secure package from a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory; and

facilitate storage of the plurality of data slices in the DSN memory when the secure package compares favorably to the second secure package.

16. The computer of claim 12, wherein the processing module functions to perform the function to generate the deterministic key by:

performing one or more of a hashing function, a checksum function, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), a mask generating function (MGF), and a compression function on the data segment to produce the deterministic key.

17. The computer of claim 12, wherein the transform function comprises at least one of:

a hashing function, a checksum function, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), a mask generating function (MGF), and a compression function.

18. The computer of claim 12, wherein the processing module functions to perform the masking function to generate the masked key by at least one of:

exclusive ORing (XOR) the deterministic key and the transformed data;

adding the deterministic key and a modulo conversion of the transformed data; and

modifying the deterministic key to produce a modified key and exclusive ORing the modified key and the transformed data.

19. A computer comprises:

an interface;

a memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the memory and the interface, the processing module is operable to;

retrieve, via the interface, a threshold number of data slices to recover a secure package, in which the secure package was initially error encoded to generate a plurality of data slices for storage, wherein the threshold number of data slices of the plurality of data slices are needed to reconstruct the secure package when retrieved, the threshold number of data slices being less than the plurality of data slices generated;

extract a masked key and encrypted data from the secure package;

perform a transform function on the encrypted data to produce transformed data;

perform a de-masking function on the masked key and the transformed data to generate a deterministic key; and

decrypt the encrypted data based on the deterministic key to recover a data segment of a data object, in which the data segment is one of a plurality of data segments generated by segmenting the data object, wherein the data segments were processed separately for storage to store the data object.

20. The computer of claim 19, wherein the transform function comprises at least one of:

a hashing function, a checksum function, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), a mask generating function (MGF), and a compression function.

21. The computer of claim 19, wherein the processing module functions to generate the deterministic key by at least one of:

exclusive ORing (XOR) the masked key and the transformed data;

subtracting a modulo conversion of the transformed data from the masked key; and

exclusive ORing the transformed data and the masked key to produce a modified key and modifying the modified key to produce the deterministic key.

22. The computer of claim 19, wherein the processing module further functions to:

transform the data segment into a validation key utilizing a hashing function; and

indicate that the data segment is valid when the validation key compares favorably to the deterministic key.