Stateless Deterministic Document Key Rotation
Deterministic ISO-week-rotating HMAC keys gate a document corpus with two tiers (index vs asset) and zero server-side state. Authorization rotates automatically; no key database.
Independent Claim 52.1
A method for access-controlling a corpus of digital documents, comprising: maintaining at a document server a secret salt that is not disclosed to any requester; for each rotation period t of a predetermined calendar interval, deterministically deriving a pair of access keys comprising an index-tier key and an asset-tier key, by computing index_tier_key = HMAC(salt, "INDEX:" concatenated with t) and asset_tier_key = HMAC(salt, "ASSET:" concatenated with t); publishing the current-period key pair to authorized recipients via a secondary secure channel on the first day of each rotation period; in response to an index request, requiring presentation of the current-period index-tier key and serving the document manifest only if the presented key matches the deterministically-derived key; and in response to an individual asset request, requiring presentation of the current-period asset-tier key and serving the individual document only if the presented key matches the deterministically-derived key; wherein the document server maintains no persistent state regarding issued keys and rotation of valid keys occurs automatically at each rotation period without operator intervention.
Dependent Claims 52.2 - 52.11
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein Rotation interval is one ISO calendar week beginning Monday 00:00 UTC.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein A prior period's keys cease to grant access immediately upon rotation.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein HMAC function is HMAC-SHA-256.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein Two tiers correspond to different document sensitivities (manifest vs individual document).
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein Authorized recipients receive rotated keys via a cryptographically-authenticated email message.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein Method supports a third access path comprising a magic-link one-time token independent of the rotation keys.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein Server persists no log of which keys were presented or by whom, preserving requester privacy.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein Salt rotation cadence is configurable per document corpus.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein System persists no key database and rotation recovers automatically after a complete server restart.
- The method of claim 52.1, wherein Authorized recipients list is a static set configured out-of-band.
Novelty Over Prior Art
Time-limited credentials (JWT expiry, OAuth2 refresh tokens) require server-side state for revocation. Deterministic key derivation (HKDF) is not combined with two-tier content gating. The specific combination - stateless, deterministic, two-tier, ISO-week, email-published - is novel for NDA-gated corpus distribution.
Enablement & Production Status
Code at apps/central-portal/src/index.ts:331-590. Deployed at https://jilsovereign.com/docs with weekly rotation emails to contact@jilsovereign.com. Keys rotate every Monday 00:00 UTC.