Document Tamper Detection via Cumulative Digest Validation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing shared document handling systems face challenges in accurately tracking and attributing modifications to electronic documents, particularly in cloud-based environments where security weaknesses, such as those in client-side JavaScript, can lead to tampering and unauthorized changes, compromising sensitive information.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for identifying tampering in electronic documents using a new document digest and validation digest generated through hashing algorithms, where modification records and additional records define the document's state, allowing for the detection of tampering by comparing the new and validation digests.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple users access and modify documents through shared document handling systems, then document collaboration and accessibility are improved, but document security and modification attribution are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by generating cryptographic hashes of modification records and maintaining ordered modification histories before potential tampering occurs. This allows the system to establish a trusted baseline state that can be used for later verification of document modifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cryptographic hash functions and modification record structures as intermediaries between the document content and the verification process. These intermediaries enable secure validation without requiring direct access to the original document state, thus maintaining security while enabling collaboration.
2Ease of operation
If client-side JavaScript is used for document access and modification, then ease of operation and platform compatibility are improved, but susceptibility to tampering and security weaknesses increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces reliance on client-side JavaScript security mechanisms with server-side cryptographic verification. Instead of trusting the client environment, the system uses mathematical hash functions to verify modification integrity, substituting a trust-based mechanical system with a mathematically secure system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates cryptographic copies (hashes) of modification records that can be verified without accessing the original document or client environment. These hash copies serve as immutable proofs of modification state, enabling verification across different platforms without exposing security weaknesses.
3Loss of information
If modification records are stored and tracked, then modification attribution and auditability are improved, but vulnerability to tampering and undetected modifications increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously verifying modification records against their cryptographic hashes and maintaining an ordered history. Each modification is validated against previous states, creating a feedback loop that detects tampering attempts and prevents undetected modifications from propagating.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary cryptographic hashing of modification records before they can be tampered with. This preliminary action creates a trusted reference state that enables later detection of any unauthorized changes to the modification history.
Data Source
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AI summary
A computer implemented method for identifying tampering of an electronic document, the method comprising the steps of: generating a document digest for the document, the document having associated one or more modification records and the document digest being a cumulative digest based on a digest of each of the modification records; receiving a modified version of the document from a document modifier, the modified version of the document having associated one or more additional modification records; generating a new document digest for the modified document, the new document digest being a cumulative digest based on a digest of each of the modification records and the additional modification records; generating a validation digest, the validation digest being a cumulative digest based on the document digest and a digest of each of the additional modification records; comparing the new document digest and the validation digest to determine if the modified version of the document has been tampered with.