Admin Access Recovery Voting for Expired Certificate Lockout
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing identity and access management systems face challenges in securely restoring administrator access when certificates expire or become invalid, leading to access denial and operational disruptions.
Innovation Solution
Implement a voting mechanism involving tenant administrators and applications to verify the identity of the administrator, using a voting engine to install a new certificate when a consensus is reached, ensuring secure and efficient access recovery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If certificate-based authentication is used to protect administrator access, then security is improved, but access recovery becomes difficult when certificates expire or become invalid
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a voting engine as an intermediary component that mediates between the locked-out administrator and the access management system. When an administrator's certificate becomes invalid, the voting engine collects votes from multiple authorized sources (other administrators, applications, services) to verify the administrator's identity and authorize access restoration, thus maintaining security while enabling recovery
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the voting engine continuously monitors administrator access status and collects verification feedback from multiple sources. When certificate validation fails, the system gathers affirmative votes from authorized entities to confirm identity, creating a feedback loop that enables secure access recovery without compromising security
2Reliability
If manual verification processes are used to restore administrator access, then security is maintained, but operational disruption increases due to time-consuming procedures
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring multiple authorized voting sources (other administrators, applications, services) before access recovery is needed. These sources are registered and authorized in advance to cast votes, so when certificate validation fails, the verification process can immediately proceed without delays for setting up verification mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The voting engine enables a form of self-service where the system automatically collects votes from multiple sources and processes the verification without requiring direct manual intervention. The automated collection and tallying of votes from pre-configured sources reduces the time administrators spend on manual verification procedures while maintaining security
3Reliability
If multiple verification sources are used to verify administrator identity, then security is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple verification sources (administrators, applications, services) into a single unified voting engine. This consolidation allows the system to collect and process votes from diverse sources through one centralized component, maintaining the security benefits of multiple verification sources while reducing overall system complexity by avoiding the need for separate verification mechanisms for each source
Data Source
AI summary
When expiration of an admin's certificate is determined, an access engine may initiate an operation to restore the admin's access. This may include a voting operation where at least applications in the system vote on whether the entity claiming to be the admin is the admin. In one example, each application vote may be based on whether information provided by the alleged admin can be verified by the application or from the application. If the applications s can verify the identity of the admin may matching information provided by the admin with information in the applications, such as logged information, the admin may be verified and the certificate may be installed. If the vote is successful, one of the tenant admins may be given temporary privileges or permissions to install the admin's new certificate, after which the admin is reinstated and has access to the system.