extension of rsync on crypted files

2002-06-27 Thread Mikael moshir
Hello,
I am a french student and I have written a technical report on an extension of the rsync algorithm to crypted files.I started from the situation of a client machine A user who doesn't wish to save an original file v0 and its successive versions v1 v2 v3 ... on a distant server B but rather to save the private ciphering of these files on the server. Let C be the cipher algorithm and xi=C(vi) the ciphering of the clear file vi, the client A wishes to save x0, x1, x2... on the server B and not v0,v1 This situation arrises for secured files backup providers which offer an option of a secured and confidential file's history backup - a client can keep the history of a file. 
Trying to use rsync here is not a good solution because the ciphering transformation on file versions disperses the correlations between them and then when Rsync tries to localize common blocks between ciphered versions, he hardly ever finds and the compression resulting from the common sequences factorisation can't happen.
My method proposes a solution to this problem and allows to save ciphered versions on a distant server with costs (storage, communications, algorithmic complexity) comparable to rsync.I want to know if anyone finds my work of interest and if anyone of you knows if such a problem have beenadressed before. I keep the documentation of my article (in french but i am working on an english translation) for anyone who would have more details.Thank you!
Ps: sorry for my small english skill.Yahoo! Mail -- Une adresse @yahoo.fr gratuite et en français !

Re: extension of rsync on crypted files

2002-06-27 Thread Ben Escoto

 MM == mmikaelfr  iso-8859-1
 wrote the following on Thu, 27 Jun 2002 15:26:51 +0200 (CEST)

  MM I am a french student and I have written a technical report on
  MM an extension of the rsync algorithm to crypted files.  I started
  MM from the situation of a client machine A user who doesn't wish
  MM to save an original file v0 and its successive versions v1 v2 v3
  MM ... on a distant server B but rather to save the private
  MM ciphering of these files on the server. Let C be the cipher
  MM algorithm and xi=C(vi) the ciphering of the clear file vi, the
  MM client A wishes to save x0, x1, x2... on the server B and not
  MM v0,v1 This situation arrises for secured files backup
  MM providers which offer an option of a secured and confidential
  MM file's history backup - a client can keep the history of a file.

Sounds interesting.  Do you mean that the server holds multiple
versions of the file so older versions can also be restored?  Is this
done by storing checksum information about older files on the client?
Also, if I understood right, isn't this a bit different from rsync
since on the server you wouldn't see the files x0, x1, x2, ... but
rather the files x0, d1, d2, ... where d1 is a some kind of delta from
x0 to x1 (or I suppose an encrypted delta from v0 to v1)?  Or have I
misunderstood your system?


--
Ben Escoto



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Re: extension of rsync on crypted files

2002-06-27 Thread jw schultz

On Thu, Jun 27, 2002 at 03:26:51PM +0200, Mikael moshir wrote:
 
 Hello,
 
 I am a french student and I have written a technical
 report on  an extension of the rsync algorithm to crypted
 files.  I started from the situation of a client machine A
 user who doesn't wish to save an original file v0 and its
 successive versions v1 v2 v3 ... on a distant server B but
 rather to save the private ciphering of these files on the
 server. Let C be the cipher algorithm and xi=C(vi) the
 ciphering of the clear file vi, the client A wishes to
 save x0, x1, x2... on the server B and not v0,v1 This
 situation arrises for secured files backup providers which
 offer an option of a secured and confidential file's
 history backup - a client can keep the history of a file. 
 
 Trying to use rsync here is not a good solution  because
 the ciphering transformation on file versions disperses
 the correlations between them and then when Rsync tries to
 localize common blocks between ciphered versions, he
 hardly ever finds and the compression resulting from the
 common sequences factorisation can't happen.
 
 My method proposes a solution to this problem and allows
 to save ciphered versions on a distant server with costs
 (storage, communications, algorithmic complexity)
 comparable to rsync.  I want to know if anyone finds my
 work of interest and if anyone of you knows if such a
 problem have been adressed before.  I keep the
 documentation of my article (in french but i am working on
 an english translation) for anyone who would have more
 details.  Thank you!
 
 Ps: sorry for my small english skill.

That skill is sufficient but you need shorter lines (hit the
carriage return).

I will try to clarify since it looks like this hasn't been
understood.

terminology:
plaintext == unencrypted file
ciphertext == encrypted file
client == local system
server == distant system

You have a client with plaintext files.  The server provides
access to multiple versions of files but on the server they are
encrypted.

As you have described it this sounds a great deal like a SCM
(source code management) system with encryption thrown in.

Presumably the encryption is because the user doesn't wish
to trust the owner of the server with maintaining his
privacy.

Judging by several recent threads there are quite a few
people who could be interested.  I suggest you look in the
list archives for the word encrypt.  You speak of a
technical report that i assume actually discusses the
method.  If you can distill that down (cut out the academic
verbiage and focus on actual method sans proofs) to a couple
of hundred words or less you could post it for discussion.
A link to source code wouldn't hurt.  We focus here on what
actually works and even broken code speaks louder than
speculation.


-- 

J.W. SchultzPegasystems Technologies
email address:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Remember Cernan and Schmitt

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