Aggregate Password Specification for Multi-Entity Reset
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face challenges in resetting passwords across multiple secure network entities with differing password specifications, which can be complex and frequently expire, making it difficult to manage and remember unique passwords for each system.
Innovation Solution
A password reset system that determines an aggregate password specification satisfying multiple network entities' requirements, allowing users to input a single new password that meets all specifications, with a processing component and user interface guiding the user to ensure compliance with password complexity rules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users reset passwords for multiple network entities separately, then each password can be customized to meet specific specifications, but the time and complexity required to manage multiple unique passwords increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple password reset operations into a single unified process. The system collects password specifications from multiple network entities, determines an aggregate specification that satisfies all entities, and resets all passwords simultaneously through one user interaction, eliminating the need to separately manage each password reset
Solution Approach 2:
The password reset system performs multiple functions through a single operation: it retrieves specifications from different network entities, processes and aggregates these specifications, validates the proposed password against all requirements, and executes resets across multiple entities simultaneously, making the system universally applicable to diverse password policies
2Reliability
If password specifications become more complex to resist sophisticated attacks, then security improves, but the difficulty for users to create and remember compliant passwords increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides immediate feedback to users during the password creation process by validating the proposed password against the aggregate specification and indicating whether it meets all requirements before final submission, allowing users to adjust their password choice based on real-time validation results
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary analysis of multiple network entities' password specifications before requiring user input, determining the aggregate specification in advance, and presenting clear guidance to users about what their password must satisfy, thereby simplifying the user's task before they even begin creating a password
3Reliability
If users are required to remember multiple unique passwords for different network entities, then each system's security requirements are met, but the complexity of password management increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates multiple independent password management tasks into a single integrated operation, where one password reset action simultaneously handles multiple network entities, reducing the number of separate authentication credentials users must create and manage
Data Source
AI summary
A customer initiated password reset system resets user passwords on a variety of network entities, such as internal systems, allowing simultaneous reset with a minimum number of user specified passwords that nonetheless satisfy the password specifications of these internal systems. Thereby, the user avoids the tedium of logging into each of these systems, changing their password, logging out, etc., for each system with the likelihood of creating unique passwords for each system that have to be remembered. By further incorporating a score metric based upon how many character sets are touched, a required degree of complexity can be measured and enforced against the password specifications. Advantageously, a table-based approach to enforcing password reset against the multiple password specifications facilitates making and fielding updates.