Encryption processing for streaming media
View Patent ↗A method of securing transmission of streaming media by encrypting each packet in the stream with a packet key using a fast encryption algorithm. The packet key is a hash of the packet tag value and a closed key which is unique for each stream. The closed key is itself encrypted by the sender and passed to the recipient using a public key encryption system. The encrypted closed key (open key) may conveniently be inserted into the stream header. All of the packets in the stream are encrypted, but only the data pay load of each packet is encrypted. It is computationally infeasible, without knowing the recipient's private key to calculate the closed key based upon knowledge of publicly accessible information such as the recipient's public key, the open key, the encrypted stream data or the packet tag values.
1. A method of transmitting streaming media securely at a packet level, the streaming media comprising a plurality of data packets, the method comprising:
generating a base key;
creating, with a computer, a plurality of packet keys comprising a corresponding packet key for each data packet of the streaming media by hashing the base key with a unique packet tag assigned to the data packet;
encrypting, with the computer, each data packet using the corresponding packet key;
encrypting, with the computer, the base key, thus creating an open key;
transmitting the open key to a recipient; and
transmitting, in a transmission separate from the transmission of the open key, the encrypted data packets and the unique packet tags to the recipient, the open key being for decryption to obtain the base key and subsequent hashing with the unique packet tags by the recipient to create the plurality of packet keys for decrypting the encrypted data packets.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the open key is transmitted by adding it to a stream header.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base key is encrypted using a public key encryption algorithm.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encrypted data packets are encrypted using a symmetric encryption algorithm in conjunction with the plurality of packet keys.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding packet key for each data packet of the streaming media is based on a secure hash of the base key and the unique packet tag assigned to the data packet.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the secure hash is based on a SHA-1 or MD5 hash.
7. A method of receiving streaming media encrypted at a packet level, the method comprising:
receiving, in a first transmission, an encrypted packet stream relating to a streaming media, the encrypted packet stream comprising a plurality of packets, each packet comprising encrypted packet information and a unique packet tag, wherein the packet information is encrypted with a packet key created by hashing a base key with the unique packet tag;
extracting the unique packet tag from each packet;
receiving, in a second transmission, an encrypted base key,
decrypting, with a computer, the encrypted base key;
computing, with a computer, a plurality of packet keys comprising a corresponding unique packet key for each packet by hashing the unique packet tag of each packet with the decrypted base key; and
decrypting, with the computer, the packet information of each packet using the corresponding unique packet key for each packet.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the base key is decrypted using a public key encryption algorithm.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the computation of the corresponding unique packet key for each packet is based on a secure hash of the decrypted base key and unique tag value of each packet.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the secure hash is based on a SHA-1 or MD5 hash function.
11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-executable program instructions for transmitting streaming media securely at the packet level, the streaming media comprising a plurality of data packets, the computer-executable program instructions comprising instructions for:
generating a base key;
creating a plurality of packet keys comprising a corresponding packet key for each data packet of the streaming media by hashing the base key with a unique packet tag assigned to the data packet;
encrypting each data packet using the corresponding packet key;
encrypting the base key, thus creating an open key;
transmitting the open key to a recipient; and
transmitting, in a transmission separate from the transmission of the open key, the encrypted data packets and the unique packet tags to a recipient, the open key being for decryption to obtain the base key and subsequent hashing with the unique packet tags by the recipient to create the plurality of packet keys for decrypting the encrypted data packets.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the streaming media comprising a one or more digital media files, each digital media file comprising a plurality of packets.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the encrypted data packets are transmitted over the internet.