Portable Ciphertext Structures for Dependency-Based Data Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Symmetric-key encryption methods, particularly block encryption modes like ECB, lack dependencies between encrypted blocks, making them vulnerable to data leakage and decryption failures if a single block is lost or compromised.
Innovation Solution
Package ciphertext blocks into relocatable data structures with dependency labels, distributing them across different nodes to ensure that blocks with dependencies are stored separately, using a propagate table and fragment-assemble engine to manage distribution and decryption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If ciphertext blocks are distributed across multiple nodes, then security against data leakage is improved, but system complexity increases due to dependency management
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the encrypted data into multiple ciphertext blocks and distributes them across different nodes in a network. Each block is packaged in a portable data structure with dependency labels, allowing secure distribution while maintaining the ability to reconstruct the original data when needed. This segmentation prevents data leakage by ensuring no single node contains the complete encrypted information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces portable data structures with dependency labels as intermediaries between the ciphertext blocks and the distribution system. These structures contain metadata about block dependencies, enabling the system to manage the distribution and reconstruction process without requiring complex peer-to-peer coordination between nodes. The dependency labels act as a mediator that simplifies the overall system complexity.
2Reliability
If dependency labels are included in portable data structures, then decryption reliability is improved, but data structure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by embedding dependency labels in the portable data structures during the encryption and distribution phase, before decryption is needed. This allows the decryption process to simply read and follow the pre-established dependency information without performing complex analysis or coordination, thereby improving decryption reliability while keeping the added complexity minimal and structured.
3Reliability
If blocks with dependencies are distributed to different nodes, then security against single-point failure is improved, but coordination overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The dependency labels in the portable data structures serve as intermediaries that encode the coordination rules needed for distributed decryption. Instead of requiring real-time communication and coordination between nodes during decryption, the system uses the pre-encoded dependency information to automatically determine the correct processing order, reducing coordination overhead while maintaining reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Data protection using portable data structures includes packaging ciphertext blocks into portable data structures, the ciphertext blocks being produced based on encryption of plaintext blocks according to a block encryption mode that includes dependencies between cryptographic processing of the plaintext blocks, the dependencies including decryption of a first ciphertext block being dependent on a second ciphertext block or decryption processing of the second ciphertext block, the packaging including providing, for each ciphertext block that has a dependency on another ciphertext block, an associated dependency label in the portable data structure in which the ciphertext block is packaged, and distributing the portable data structures to nodes such that portable data structures, of the portable data structures, that package ciphertext blocks between which at least one dependency exists are distributed to different nodes of the nodes.