Patent ID: 6011847
Filing Date: 2000-01-04
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A cryptographic system which encrypts and decrypts a message of digital information having a trailer in which a plurality of labels are located so as to be individually retrievable, said cryptographic system comprising:a data key storage means for retrievably storing a data key;a label storing means for individually, retrievably storing a plurality of labels, each label containing rational information relevant to the message;an input means for providing an input passphrase from a user, said passphrase comprising at least one password;a communicating element which manipulates, stores and retrieves the message;a data base containing a plurality of label strings and a plurality of corresponding weighting factors;a program which directs the operation of said communicating element, said program having a plurality of instruction sets including:an instruction set for directing said communicating element to retrieve said data key from said data key storage means,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to receive said input passphrase,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to use said data key and said input passphrase to determine if the user should be granted access to further parts of the program,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to manipulate said data key and said input passphrase to generate a vector which is called the ""gamma vector"" herein,an instruction set for creating a plurality of separately encrypted, identifiable and addressable, and concatenated labels, each label having a known number of bytes;an instruction set for directing said communicating element to utilize said gamma vector for encrypting each label,an instruction set for attaching said plurality of encrypted labels at a known location as a message trailer to said message;said attaching instruction set including a subset of instruction permitting a user of said cryptographics system to access said data base and to select a label string depending upon the corresponding weighting factors;an instruction set, for locating the encrypted labels in an encrypted message trailer, and for retrievably storing each label;an instruction set for directing said communicating element to utilize said gamma vector for decrypting each label,an instruction set for directing said communicating element to use two of said plurality of labels and said gamma vector to generate a message key, andan instruction set for directing said communicating element to use said message key with an encryption/decryption algorithm to encrypt and decrypt the message; andan expert system means for evaluating said weighting factors of the user selected label strings to determine if the combination of selected label strings is a permitted combination.