Adaptive Security Credential Timeout Decay
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional security mechanisms, such as cookies and session tokens, are vulnerable to unauthorized access as older copies can be used to impersonate users, leading to security breaches and resource misuse.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an adaptive system that varies and decays security credentials over time, using factors like timestamp, operation count, and badness factor to determine the validity of cookies, ensuring only current and valid credentials are accepted for authentication, thereby reducing the effectiveness of older copies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If security credentials (cookies, session tokens) are provided to clients for authentication, then user authentication and session management are enabled, but older copies of these credentials can be intercepted and used to impersonate users, leading to security breaches
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making security credentials time-dependent and operation-count-dependent. Instead of static credentials that remain valid indefinitely, the system uses dynamic credentials that automatically expire after a certain time period or number of operations. This dynamic nature ensures that even if credentials are intercepted, their validity window is limited, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameters of security credentials by incorporating timestamps and operation counts into the credential structure. Each credential includes a creation time and a maximum validity period, creating a time-bound parameter. Additionally, operation counts track usage, creating a usage-bound parameter. These parameter changes transform static credentials into controlled, expiring credentials that automatically become invalid after meeting their temporal or operational thresholds.
2Ease of operation
If security credentials have long validity periods to maintain session continuity, then user convenience is improved, but the window of opportunity for unauthorized access using intercepted credentials increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts credential validity based on configured policies. Administrators can set different time limits and operation counts based on security requirements and user roles. This dynamic configuration allows the system to balance session continuity needs with security constraints, enabling longer sessions for trusted users while maintaining shorter validity for sensitive operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent maintains continuity of useful action by allowing seamless credential renewal within the validity period. The system continuously tracks the credential's age and operation count, automatically managing expiration and renewal without requiring user intervention. This ensures uninterrupted legitimate access while the credential remains valid, while simultaneously limiting the maximum exposure time.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system accepts older copies of security credentials for backward compatibility, then legacy systems and multiple client devices can access sessions, but security is compromised as stale credentials remain valid
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically evaluates each credential presentation against the current time and operation count. Instead of statically accepting or rejecting based on fixed rules, the system continuously checks whether the credential's timestamp and operation count fall within the acceptable window. This dynamic evaluation enables flexible support for multiple devices while maintaining security boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses parameter changes to define acceptable credential ranges. The system stores the credential creation time and maximum validity period as parameters, then dynamically compares these against the current state. This parameter-based approach allows the system to adapt to different security policies and time zones while maintaining consistent validation logic across all clients.
Data Source
AI summary
Session-specific information stored to a cookie or other secure token can be selected and/or caused to vary over time, such that older copies will become less useful over time. Such an approach reduces the ability of entities obtaining a copy of the cookie from performing unauthorized tasks on a session. A cookie received with a request can contain a timestamp and an operation count for a session that may need to fall within an acceptable range of the current values in order for the request to be processed. A cookie returned with a response can be set to the correct value or incremented from the previous value based on various factors. The allowable bands can decrease with age of the session, and various parameter values such as a badness factor for a session can be updated continually based on the events for the session.