Computational infeasibility of a brute force
attack is a "holy grail" of cryptography. The goal is elusive,
in part because of the "Moore's Law" phenomenon -- a doubling
of computational capacity roughly every 18 months. The Pryvit
method is a modest contribution toward the goal, interesting for
these reasons:
Pryvit converts large quantities of bits and bytes into a highly
unpredictable mass and a relatively small vulnerable component
(the reconstitution file or formula).
The reconstitution formula is unpredictable;
it changes radically every time a new batch of files is made
confidential. If an adversary gets hold of a reconstitution
file for one batch, it is absolutely useless for deciphering
any other batch of files.
The protection provided by Pryvit can
be enhanced through a variety of techniques
such as cascading (recursive fragmentation), private tables,
one time tables, etc.
Because the method and source
code are fully public under dual license provisions, Pryvit
can be incorporated readily as one layer of defense within a
larger security system.
Pryvit is a fragmentation technique driven by
random tables. Individual fragments 1 to 16 bytes long are drawn
randomly from multiple files. Fragments are subjected to randomly
selected arithmetic disguising techniques with random arguments.
These disguised fragments are mixed randomly in composite output
files. These output files may be used as input for a further stage,
or they may be disbursed automatically to anonymous locations on
the Internet.
The vulnerable component is a "reconstitution
file", actually a formula for recalling the dispersed composite
files and an extremely condensed set of instructions for moving
about within and among random tables to recreate byte by byte
the original files. Without access to the reconstitution file,
an attacker would be faced with a significant challenge in finding
patterns within the composite files, particularly if the method
has been applied recursively. It's like putting together paper
fragments that have been run through a paper shredder multiple
times.
For full technical details, click on the
Patent tab near the top of the page. Please
examine also the vulnerability landscape
associated with this method.
