Covert Text Replacement for Secure Remote Printing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users are hesitant to use remote printing services for printing private or confidential content due to concerns that the text may be exposed during the rendering process, as existing solutions require rendering the content at the remote service, potentially compromising sensitive information.
Innovation Solution
Generating a renderable covert version of a document by replacing each character with a corresponding second character having a different semantic meaning and encrypting the textual content, allowing the remote printing service to render only the replacement text without decrypting the encrypted representation, thus preserving the actual content's confidentiality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the content is rendered at the remote printing service, then the printing service can process and forward the content to the destination printer, but the actual textual content may be exposed during the rendering process, compromising confidentiality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary encoding scheme where the original text is transformed into a covert version using character substitution and encryption. This intermediary representation allows the remote printing service to process the content without exposing the actual plaintext, thus maintaining confidentiality while enabling service operation. The encoding acts as a mediator between the user's confidential content and the remote service's rendering capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a covert copy of the original text that preserves the structural and formatting information needed for rendering, while replacing the actual semantic content with dummy characters. This copy can be processed by the remote printing service without compromising the original confidential text. The service renders the covert copy and returns it, which is then decoded at the destination to reconstruct the original content for printing.
2Reliability
If the textual content is encrypted and replaced with dummy characters, then the confidentiality is preserved, but the remote printing service cannot render the actual content without decryption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the content processing into distinct phases: encoding at the client side, rendering at the remote service, and decoding at the destination. The encrypted representation is segmented from the dummy text, allowing the remote service to efficiently render only the dummy characters and formatting information without needing to decrypt or process the actual confidential content. This segmentation maintains security while preserving rendering efficiency.
3Reliability
If a covert version with replacement text is used, then the actual content remains hidden during remote rendering, but additional processing steps are required to generate and decode the covert version
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary encoding actions at the client side before the content reaches the remote printing service. The text is pre-processed into a covert version with replacement characters and encryption, so that when the content arrives at the remote service, no additional security processing is needed. This preliminary action shifts the complexity to the client side, allowing the remote service to operate with simpler, more efficient rendering processes while maintaining security.
Data Source
AI summary
Examples disclosed herein relate to replacement text for textual content to be printed. Examples include a covert version of a document including textual content to be printed, the covert version including replacement text having, for each character of a plurality of first characters of the textual content, a corresponding second character having a different semantic meaning than the first character. The covert version also includes an encrypted representation of the textual content.