Central Implicit Certificate Management for Server Host Names
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional local certificate management on servers is inefficient and time-consuming, especially in high-density deployments like shared web hosting, where managing thousands of certificates requires explicit binding and renewal processes, leading to increased costs and complexity.
Innovation Solution
Implementing central and implicit certificate management, where digital certificates and keys are stored in a central repository, allowing servers to dynamically acquire and cache them, with implicit binding based on host names, reducing the need for explicit bindings and remote calls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If certificates are managed locally on each server with explicit binding, then certificate security and control are maintained, but administrative burden and time consumption increase significantly in high-density deployments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a central certificate store as an intermediary component that mediates between certificate authorities and multiple servers. This central store automatically receives, stores, and distributes certificates to servers based on host names, eliminating the need for manual certificate binding on each server. The intermediary handles the administrative burden centrally while maintaining secure distribution to individual servers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables servers to automatically acquire the certificates they need based on their host names without requiring manual administrative intervention. When a server starts or receives a request, it can autonomously retrieve its certificate from the central store using its host name as the key, significantly reducing the time and effort required for certificate management in high-density deployments.
2Speed
If certificates are stored locally on servers, then access speed is fast, but remote calls and network dependencies increase in centralized management scenarios
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a mechanism where certificates are pre-acquired and cached on servers during system initialization or before they are actually needed. The central store proactively provides certificates to servers based on predicted needs, so that when a server requires a certificate for a host name, it is already available locally, minimizing network calls and improving access speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adopts a hybrid approach where the central certificate store maintains the master copy of all certificates, but individual servers maintain local caches of the specific certificates they need based on their host names. This local quality ensures fast access for each server while the central store provides centralized control and updates, reducing overall network communication overhead.
3Manufacturing precision
If explicit binding of certificates to host names is implemented, then certificate-host association is precise, but complexity of management processes increases
Solution Approach 1:
The central certificate store acts as an intermediary that automatically performs the binding of certificates to host names using a standardized naming convention. Instead of requiring administrators to manually bind each certificate to specific host names on multiple servers, the central store uses the host name itself as the key to retrieve and distribute the appropriate certificate, maintaining precision while reducing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of certificate management from manual binding operations to automated retrieval based on host name parameters. By using the host name as a direct key or index in the central store, the system maintains precise certificate-host association while transforming the complex binding process into a simple parameter-based lookup operation.
Data Source
AI summary
Facilitating management of digital certificates is addressed. More specifically, digital certificates as well as public and private keys can be stored in a centrally accessible location and dynamically acquired from the location as needed. Additionally, binding of digital certificates and associated keys can be implicit and determined as a function of a host name provided during protocol negotiation, for example.