Authentication Translator for Biometric Legacy-System Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing authentication methods are tedious for users, often leading to insecure practices such as password re-use and poor password quality, and are not easily deployable on legacy systems.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an authentication translator that uses biometric features to securely translate credentials across devices, including secure storage and renegotiation of SSL connections to protect against malware, and supports legacy servers through proxy-based translation of cookies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users manually manage credentials for authentication, then security can be maintained through strong passwords, but user convenience deteriorates due to tedious authentication processes
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automatic authentication where the device itself manages credentials and performs authentication actions without requiring manual user intervention. The authentication translator automatically translates biometric authentication into service-specific credentials, allowing the system to serve itself in the authentication process while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication translator acts as an intermediary component between the biometric authentication system and legacy service systems. It translates authentication requests and responses between different protocols, enabling seamless authentication without exposing user credentials while maintaining both security and convenience.
2Ease of operation
If users simplify authentication by reusing passwords or using weak passwords, then ease of operation improves, but security deteriorates making credentials vulnerable to attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a secure copy mechanism where biometric data is transformed into authentication tokens that can be used across multiple services. Instead of reusing actual passwords, the system generates service-specific credential copies from the master biometric credential, maintaining security while enabling simplified authentication across services.
3Reliability
If new authentication systems are implemented to improve security and convenience, then authentication quality improves, but adaptability to legacy systems deteriorates requiring system modifications
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication translator serves as a compatibility layer that mediates between modern biometric authentication systems and legacy service architectures. It translates authentication protocols and credential formats, allowing high-quality biometric authentication to work with legacy systems that expect traditional username/password formats without requiring modifications to the legacy systems themselves.
4Ease of operation
If biometric authentication is used to eliminate manual credential entry, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity increases due to secure storage and SSL renegotiation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and isolates the complex security functions (secure storage, SSL renegotiation, credential translation) into a dedicated authentication translator component. This separation allows the main device to remain simple while the translator handles complexity, making the system easier to deploy and maintain without sacrificing security or automatic authentication capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Authentication translation is disclosed. A request to access a resource is received at an authentication translator, as is an authentication input. The authentication input corresponds to at least one stored record. The stored record is associated at least with the resource. In response to the receiving, a previously stored credential associated with the resource is accessed. The credential is provided to the resource.