Introduction
KeyOnZip is built upon the well-known open source software 7-Zip, by adding a new archive format .koz for supporting the smart key management KeyOnDemand service from the Kodsun system. The service of KeyOnDemand is free, which uses the standard XMPP technologies to provide the free, reliable and confidential digital key management and instant messaging services to 3rd parties.
KeyOnZip is developed in C++ and currently running on Windows XP/NT/2000/2003/Vista in English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
What Is Good?
When using on a computer installed with the Kodsun software (available at http://www.kodsun.com), KeyOnZip will provide you with a distinct feature for supporting the Smart Key Management service from the Kodsun system, and free you from the troubles of remembering and inputting the password for each encryted archive.
Better Usability With Kodsun (including KeyOnZip as a plug-in), the ever troubling archive encryption job can be done by the simple drag-and-drop opeartions. And you can send an archive via the Kodsun system in a way similar to what you have been familiar with in other instant messaging systems.
Using Kodsun, the archive encryption and compression process is fully automated. To encrypt an archive, you can choose between using your own password or a random password automatically generated on-the-fly by KeyOnZip. In addition, you can also authorize who can decrypt the archive, i.e. the reader(s) of the archive. The tasks can be configured via a user-friendly interface in the Kodsun software.
When you are online at Kodsun, encrypting and decrypting an archive will be done automatically: you will not be prompted to input a password any more, Kodsun will automatically complete all the jobs for you. What you need to do is simply moving around your mouse to click and drag-and-drop.
Stronger Security The headache for using a password to encrypt an archive (i.e. the password is chosen by yourselves) is that the user will take the risk of forgetting/losing the password. However, using Kodsun, we can escape from taking this risk. In addition, using an auto-password to encrypt an archive will bring far stronger security than choosing an easy-to-remember password by the user.
Good Privacy You may wonder if the original password you input will be stored somewhere by Kodsun. The answer is: NO! In the header of an encrypted .koz archive, only the Kodsun ID(s) of the reader(s) and the (RSA public key) encrypted password (either input by the user or auto-generated by the system) are stored. To the best of our knowledge, there is no an effective/efficient method to compute the plaintext from its encrypted data given no the RSA private key.
How Does KeyOnZip Work?
KeyOnZip patches the pure 7z format of 7-Zip by an additional header, called the key field, to create the koz format, where the key field is filled with the encryption and reader authorization information of the archive. Specifically, each Kodsun user has a pair of RSA public and private keys stored at the remote Kodsun servers.
- When encrypting a koz archive, KeyOnZip encrypts the koz-password by the public key of each reader (of this encrypted archive) retrieved via the Kodsun software running on your machine.
- When decrypting a koz archive, KeyOnZip supplies the Kodsun software the archive's header information, then Kodsun will restore the koz-password using the private key of any authenticated reader of the archive, and feedback KeyOnZip the koz-password to further restore the archive's data.
Is KeyOnZip Free?
YES! KeyOnZip is an open source freeware, issued under the LGPL license.
Acknowledgment
KeyOnZip is the result of adding a patch for the koz format to the original 7-Zip(4.57). Except the patch, all the credits are given to the contributors of 7-Zip. Special thanks are given to the great open source project 7-Zip, for which has speeded up the process of embodying the koz ideas in KeyOnZip.
