Centralized Token Authentication Entity for Web Services
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Solution Overview
Problem
Web service providers (WSPs) like identity providers (IdP) and identity web-service framework (ID-WSF) discovery services face complexity in managing and maintaining Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) tokens, as they need to regenerate and authenticate tokens, leading to complicated logical functions and lack of centralized management.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for authenticating tokens in web services where the entity for authenticating tokens manages and maintains tokens centrally, eliminating the need for WSPs to regenerate SAML assertions, allowing uniform authentication through a centralized entity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If WSPs (IdP, ID-WSF discovery service) separately generate and maintain SAML assertions to authenticate tokens, then authentication functionality is provided, but the logical functions become complicated and token management cannot be centralized
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the token generation and maintenance functions from the WSPs (IdP and ID-WSF discovery service) and concentrates them in a dedicated authentication entity. This allows WSPs to focus on their core authentication roles while the specialized entity handles token lifecycle management, reducing logical function complexity across the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication entity serves multiple functions: it generates tokens, maintains token state, authenticates tokens, and provides token information to WSPs. This multi-functional design consolidates what would otherwise require separate components in each WSP, simplifying the overall system architecture.
2Reliability
If WSPs separately generate and maintain SAML assertions, then authentication can be performed, but tokens cannot be managed and maintained in a centralized manner
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the token generation, maintenance, and authentication functions into a single centralized authentication entity. This consolidation enables centralized token management while preserving authentication capabilities, as the authentication entity serves as the single source of truth for all token operations across the federation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method, a system, and an entity for authenticating tokens for web services are provided in the embodiments of the present invention. The present invention relates to a technology used for authenticating a user login token for web services. This helps address a problem in the conventional art, that is, tokens cannot be managed in a centralized manner. An entity for authenticating tokens is provided in the embodiments of the present to maintain tokes, where all WSPs are required to authenticate tokens through the entity for authenticating tokens, and return the authentication result to the WSR. The embodiments of the present invention are mainly applied in WSPs, such as the IdP, ID-WSF discovery service, and AP.