Importance

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Abstract

A cryptographic key recovery system that operates in two phases. In the first phase, the sender establishes a secret value with the receiver. For each key recovery agent, the sender generates a key-generating value as a one-way function of the secret value and encrypts the key-generating value with a public key of the key recovery agent. In the second phase, performed for a particular cryptographic session, the sender generates for each key recovery agent a key-encrypting key as a one-way function of the corresponding key-generating value and multiply encrypts the session key with the key-encrypting keys of the key recovery agents. The encrypted key-generating values and the multiply encrypted session key are transmitted together with other recovery information in a manner permitting their interception by a party seeking to recover the secret value. To recover the secret value, the party seeking recovery presents the encrypted key-generating values and public recovery information to the key recovery agents, who decrypt the key-generating values, regenerate the key-encrypting keys from the corresponding key-generating values, and provide the regenerated key-encrypting keys to the recovering party. The recovering party uses the key-encrypting keys to recover the secret value. Since the key-generating values cannot be derived from the key-encrypting keys, they may be used over a period spanning multiple cryptographic sessions without requiring new values or new public key encryptions.

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First Claim