Patent ID: 8769292

Claim:
An apparatus for validating integrity of metadata in a standard file, comprising: a metadata acquiring unit configured to acquire metadata from a protected file, wherein the protected file comprises: previously generated secret information inserted into an original file, wherein the secret information is (i) calculated from data of the original file according to a predetermined formula, and (ii) inserted into the original file based on a steganography technology, in order to provide integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation for the metadata, wherein the steganography technology is at least one of: a watermarking scheme, a fingerprinting scheme and selection of one or more areas of the original file; and an integrity evidence value of the metadata, wherein the integrity evidence value of the metadata is generated based on the secret information using a cryptographic scheme, and includes at least one of a keyed hash message authentication code (HMAC) value and a digital signature value, in order to provide the integrity, the authentication, and the non-repudiation for the metadata, wherein the metadata is inserted into at least one of a file header and an optional field in the original file, wherein, when the digital signature value is applied, a distinguish name is inserted into the metadata; an integrity evidence value acquiring unit configured to acquire the integrity evidence value corresponding to the protected file from at least one of a file and a database; a secret information extracting unit configured to extract secret information from the protected file, using the steganography technology; and a metadata integrity validating unit configured to check if the metadata is correct by using the acquired integrity evidence value of the metadata, the acquired integrity evidence value corresponding to the protected file, and the extracted secret information of the protected file.