On-disk file format for serverless distributed file system with signed manifest of file modifications
US7478243B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 21, 2001 |
| Grant date | Jan 13, 2009 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 15, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2209/80
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
In a serverless distributed file system, the writer of a file can provide file authentication information to a verifying machine without having to compute a new digital signature every time a written file is closed. Periodically, the writer compiles a list of the hash values of all files that have been written over a recent interval, computes a hash of the list, and signs the hash. This signed list of hash values is known as a manifest, akin to a shipping manifest that enumerates the items in a shipment. The advantage of using a signed manifest is that the writer need only perform a single signature computation in order to authenticate the writes to multiple files, rather than having to compute a separate signature for each file, as it would if a signature were embedded in each file.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.