Remote File Integrity Verification and Self-Repair Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
In distributed communication systems, ensuring the integrity and security of remote files is challenging due to the difficulty in guaranteeing their integrity, as files can become altered, deleted, or tampered with, compromising the authentication process and reducing the value of authentication systems for businesses.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that automatically detects and self-repairs modified, corrupt, or non-existent remote files by performing an integrity check, redirecting to an install module for reinstallation if the check fails, ensuring secure and tamper-proof files across a distributed medium like the Internet.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If files are distributed across remote computers in a distributed communication system, then information access and exchange speed is improved, but file integrity and security deteriorate due to difficulty in guaranteeing their integrity
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary integrity verification by computing hash values of remote files and comparing them against stored reference hash values before allowing access or execution. This preliminary action ensures file integrity is checked in advance, preventing compromised files from affecting system security while maintaining the distributed architecture's speed advantages.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary verification mechanism that acts as a mediator between the distributed file system and the authentication process. This intermediary layer computes and verifies hash values, ensuring file integrity without requiring direct trust in remote file locations, thus resolving the contradiction between distributed access speed and file integrity reliability.
2Device complexity
If manual monitoring and replacement of compromised files is used, then system complexity is reduced, but productivity and response time deteriorate due to delayed detection and repair
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by automatically detecting file corruption through hash verification and triggering reinstallation processes without human intervention. When integrity checks fail, the system automatically reinstalls compromised files from secure sources, eliminating the need for manual monitoring while maintaining low system complexity and achieving rapid response times.
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a feedback loop where integrity check results automatically trigger appropriate actions. If hash verification succeeds, normal operation continues; if it fails, the system automatically initiates reinstallation. This feedback mechanism enables rapid automated response to file corruption while keeping the overall system complexity manageable through clear, rule-based decision logic.
3Reliability
If integrity checks are performed on all remote files, then file security is improved, but processing time and system resources deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by performing integrity checks selectively rather than on all files uniformly. Critical authentication-related files are verified with high priority and frequency, while less critical files undergo verification at appropriate intervals. This approach ensures file security for essential components while minimizing unnecessary processing time and resource consumption for non-critical files.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method of guaranteeing the presence of secure and tamper-proof remote files over a distributed communication medium, such as the Internet, is provided. The system and method automatically detects, and then self-repairs corrupt, modified or non-existent remote files. The method first performs an integrity check on a remote file and then determines whether the integrity check passed. If the integrity check passed, then the user goes through the authentication process as normal. If the integrity check fails, then the present invention redirects to an install module in order to prepare to reinstall the remote file. Via the install module, the present invention then reinstalls the remote file and the user is then taken through the authentication process as normal.