Abstract: A method for controlling access to protected objects in a distributed environment, including providing a user key KU corresponding to a public key KUP of a user; receiving a server key KS from a remote server; generating the combination key KC by decrypting a metadata field Datai using the key KU. The public key KUP is used to generate the metadata field Datai, and the metadata field Datai is stored as part of a protected object's metadata. The object key KOBJ is calculated from the combination key KC and the server key KS by either XORing the combination key KC and the server key KS, or by decrypting the combination key KC using the server key KS. The object key KOBJ is used to encrypt and decrypt the protected object. A user who has access to the protected object having structure has access to any unprotected file or unprotected structured objected inside the structured protected objected, but does not have access to any structured protected object without an additional key.

Abstract: A system, method and computer program product for recovering a password including, for each possible password to be tested, generating a periodicity unit based on a number of symbols in the password and a size of a chunk used by a one-way function to encrypt the password. The periodicity unit is substantially shorter than an input string, that includes replicated actual password used to encrypt the password. Based on the periodicity unit, using the one-way function, generating a control value for the periodicity unit. The control value is tested for a match with a control value generated from the actual password. An indication of a match is provided to a user.