Electronic Certificate Provisioning for Automatic Renewal Across Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
The manual process of adding, updating, and setting electronic certificates in multiple information processing apparatuses is burdensome and time-consuming, particularly when many devices need to be managed.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus is equipped with a mechanism to automatically generate a public key pair, request and obtain electronic certificates via a certificate authority, and enable their use in applications, reducing the need for manual intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual storage and management of electronic certificates is performed for each information processing apparatus, then authentication security is maintained, but user workload increases and time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The information processing apparatus automatically generates its own public key pair, requests electronic certificates from a certificate authority, and manages certificate updates without requiring manual user intervention. The system performs self-certification and self-renewal operations, eliminating the need for users to manually store, update, or manage certificates across multiple devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically generating public key pairs and obtaining electronic certificates before they are needed for authentication. The apparatus proactively manages certificate validity periods and performs updates before expiration, preventing authentication failures before they occur.
2Reliability
If manual update of electronic certificates is performed when validity period expires, then authentication continues to work, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The apparatus automatically monitors its own certificate validity period and performs self-renewal without user intervention. The system handles the entire update process including generating new key pairs, requesting certificates from CAs, and configuring applications, eliminating manual update operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs certificate updates in advance before the validity period expires by continuously monitoring certificate status and initiating renewal processes proactively, ensuring authentication continuity without last-minute manual interventions.
3Reliability
If separate electronic certificates are managed for each communication application, then communication security is optimized, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a unified certificate management mechanism that handles multiple communication applications (TLS, IPSEC, IEEE802.1X) through a single integrated process. The apparatus obtains one electronic certificate that can be applied across different communication protocols, eliminating the need to manage separate certificates for each application while maintaining security optimization.
Data Source
AI summary
An information processing apparatus generates a public key pair in accordance with a certificate issuance request, generates a certificate signing request based on the public key pair and transmits an electronic certificate issuance request to an external apparatus. The information processing apparatus receives a response transmitted from the external apparatus as a response to the electronic certificate issuance request, obtains an electronic certificate included in the received response and causes an application to enable its use of the obtained electronic certificate.