Bandwidth efficient method and system for obscuring the existence of encryption in a communications channel
View Patent ↗A system, method, and network interface obscures the existence of data encryption in a communication network is provided. A set of characters is generated by using a set of encryption keys as an input to a pseudo-random function. Each character corresponds to an index value. The encrypted data is divided into a plurality of parts. Each part is sectioned into a plurality of groups. Each group of the plurality of groups is encoded by mapping the group to a character in the set of characters according to its corresponding index value. The mapped characters are transmitted through the communication network.
1. A method of obscuring the existence of data encryption in a communication network, the method comprising:
generating a set of characters by using a set of encryption keys as an input to a pseudo-random function, each character corresponding to an index value;
dividing encrypted data into a plurality of parts;
sectioning each part into a plurality of groups;
encoding each part by mapping each group to a character in the set of characters according to its corresponding index value; and
transmitting the mapped characters through the communication network.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of characters includes sixty-four characters.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the sixty-four characters are pseudo-randomly selected from a full set of 256 ASCII characters.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising biasing generation of the set of characters such that a probability of selecting ASCII control characters as members of the set is decreased.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising biasing generation of the set of characters such that a probability of selecting a group of characters as members of the set is increased.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a part is an octet triplet and each group has six bits.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a plurality of character sets; and
using a different character set to encode consecutive parts.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein an assignment of character sets to parts is pseudo-randomly chosen.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the assignment of character sets to parts is chosen using the pseudo-random function used to generate the character sets.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an encoded data message, the encoded data message including characters in the set of characters;
dividing the encoded data message into groups of characters;
mapping each character to its corresponding index value to recreate the plurality of parts; and
decrypting each part of the plurality of parts.
11. A network interface for obscuring the existence of data encryption, the network interface comprising:
a controller operating to:
generate a set of characters by using a set of encryption keys as an input to a pseudo-random function, each character corresponding to an index value;
divide encrypted data into a plurality of parts;
section each part of the plurality of parts into a plurality of groups; and
encode each part by mapping each group of the plurality of groups to a character in the set of characters according to its corresponding index value; and
a communication interface communicatively coupled to the controller, the communication interface operating to transmit the mapped characters through the communication network.
12. The network interface of claim 11 , wherein a part is an octet triplet and each group has six bits.
13. The network interface of claim 12 , wherein the sixty-four characters are pseudo-randomly selected from a full set of 256 ASCII characters.
14. The network interface of claim 11 , wherein the controller further operates to bias generation of the set of characters such that a probability of selecting ASCII control characters as members of the set is decreased.
15. The network interface of claim 11 , wherein the controller further operates to bias generation of the set of characters such that a probability of selecting a group of characters as members of the set of characters is increased.
16. The network interface of claim 11 , wherein the controller further operates to:
generate a plurality of character sets; and
use a different character set to encode consecutive parts.
17. The network interface of claim 16 , wherein an assignment of character sets to parts is fixed.
18. The network interface of claim 16 , wherein an assignment of character sets to parts is pseudo-randomly chosen.
19. The network interface of claim 11 , wherein the communication interface further operates to receive an encoded data message, the encoded data message including characters in the set of characters; and
wherein the controller further operates to:
divide the encoded data message into a plurality of groups of characters;
map each character to its corresponding index value to recreate the plurality of parts; and
decrypt each part of the plurality of parts.
20. A system for obscuring the existence of data encryption in a communication network, the system comprising:
a first network interface operating to:
generate a set of alphabet characters by using a set of encryption keys as an input to a pseudo-random function, each alphabet character corresponding to an index value;
divide encrypted data into a plurality of parts;
section each part into a plurality of groups;
encode each part by mapping each of the plurality of groups to a character in the set of characters according to its corresponding index value; and
transmit the mapped characters through the communication network; and
a second network interface operating to:
receive an encoded data message, the encoded data message including the mapped characters;
divide the encoded data message into a plurality of groups of characters;
map each character to its corresponding index value to recreate the plurality of parts; and
decrypt each part of the plurality of parts.