Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided for the operation of a secure and deduplicated write once read many virtual disk which exceeds the write performance of traditional cryptographic methods. This is achieved through the utilization of a time-memory tradeoff via the empty space on a virtual disk at format time. Traditionally empty space is zeroed to indicate that data is not present. When implementing the apparatus, the empty space is filled with the output of a symmetric-key algorithm uniquely keyed for that specific disk. From an information theoretic point of view, the format operation stores cryptographically structured data, rather than purely redundant data, enabling the write operation that encodes data to be stored on the disk to operate without additional cryptographic computation. This reduced computation requirement for encoding enables the computation required deduplication to operate as if encoding was not being performed, resulting in a net throughput increase.
Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided for the virtualization of cryptographic resources which enables memory speed encryption and decryption that is not bound by the speed at which processor resources can compute the result of a symmetric-key algorithm. This is achieved through a time-memory tradeoff via empty space at provisioning time. When implementing the apparatus, un-initialized memory is filled with the output of a symmetric-key algorithm uniquely keyed for the specific set of data that is going to be written to the provisioned area. Since the provisioning operation stores cryptographically structured data, rather than redundant data, plaintext that is xor'ed into memory is automatically encrypted and ciphertext that xor'ed into memory is automatically decrypted without the need for additional cryptographic computation. This reduced computation requirement enables cryptographic function to be implemented at the ends of communication, rather than the middle, and treated as a virtualized resource.
Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided for the virtualization of cryptographic resources which enables memory speed encryption and decryption that is not bound by the speed at which processor resources can compute the result of a symmetric-key algorithm. This is achieved through a time-memory tradeoff via empty space at provisioning time. When implementing the apparatus, un-initialized memory is filled with the output of a symmetric-key algorithm uniquely keyed for the specific set of data that is going to be written to the provisioned area. Since the provisioning operation stores cryptographically structured data, rather than redundant data, plaintext that is xor'ed into memory is automatically encrypted and ciphertext that xor'ed into memory is automatically decrypted without the need for additional cryptographic computation. This reduced computation requirement enables cryptographic function to be implemented at the ends of communication, rather than the middle, and treated as a virtualized resource.