SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTHENTICATING AND PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF DATA STREAMS AND OTHER DATA

摘要

Systems and methods are disclosed for enabling a recipient of a cryptographically-signed electronic communication to verify the authenticity of the communication on-the-fly using a signed chain of check values, the chain being constructed from the original content of the communication, and each check value in the chain being at least partially dependent on the signed root of the chain and a portion of the communication. Fault tolerance can be provided by including error-check values in the communication that enable a decoding device to maintain the chain's security in the face of communication errors. In one embodiment, systems and methods are provided for enabling secure quasi-random access to a content file by constructing a hierarchy of hash values from the file, the hierarchy deriving its security in a manner similar to that used by the above-described chain. The hierarchy culminates with a signed hash that can be used to verify the integrity of other hash values in the hierarchy, and these other hash values can, in turn, be used to efficiently verify the authenticity of arbitrary portions of the content file.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for authenticating a streamed transmission of a digital file, the method being performed by a system comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform the method, the method comprising:
receiving a streamed transmission of a digital file and a progression of check values, each check value in the progression of check values being derived from at least one other check value in the progression and from a portion of the digital file, the progression of check values comprising an encrypted final check value corresponding to a beginning portion of the digital file and being included in proximity to a beginning of the streamed transmission; decrypting the encrypted final check value; determining the integrity of one or more portions of the digital file based, at least in part, on the decrypted final check value; and determining whether to authenticate the streamed transmission based on the determined integrity of the one or more portions of the digital file before the entire digital file is received.