Certificate-Based Identity Provider for Cross-Domain Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Federated identity management systems face challenges in ensuring reliable authentication across different security domains, as the authentication provided by federated identity providers may not be sufficiently robust, and relying parties often lack the resources to enforce adequate authentication levels, making them vulnerable to malicious actors.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a certificate-based identity provider that authenticates clients using client certificates and additional credentials, such as usernames and passwords, to generate identity tokens, thereby enhancing security through multi-factor authentication and offloading certificate validation to the identity provider, allowing services to leverage client certificate authentication without needing to build support for it themselves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If federated identity management is implemented to enable cross-domain access, then portability of identity information is improved, but authentication reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a certificate-based identity provider as an intermediary between the client and the relying party. This intermediary validates client certificates and issues identity tokens, thereby mediating the authentication process to enhance reliability while preserving the portability benefits of federated identity management.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the authentication parameter from simple credential verification to certificate-based authentication. By requiring clients to present valid certificates and undergo multi-factor authentication, the system elevates the security parameter while maintaining cross-domain accessibility.
2Reliability
If stronger authentication methods are implemented to improve security, then authentication reliability is improved, but device complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the certificate validation complexity from the relying party and places it in the certificate-based identity provider. This extraction allows the relying party to implement strong authentication without bearing the complexity of certificate validation, thus improving security while managing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The certificate-based identity provider performs self-service by automatically validating client certificates against trusted certificate authorities and issuing identity tokens. This automation reduces the operational complexity that would otherwise be required to manage strong certificate-based authentication across multiple systems.
3Reliability
If certificate-based authentication is implemented to improve security, then authentication reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by requiring clients to obtain certificates from trusted certificate authorities before attempting to access services. This pre-authentication step ensures that when clients connect, the relying party can quickly validate credentials through the identity provider, maintaining security while streamlining the actual access operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The identity provider acts as an intermediary that simplifies the user experience by handling the complex certificate validation process transparently. Users interact with a standardized authentication interface while the intermediary manages the underlying certificate complexity, thus improving reliability without significantly impacting ease of operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A service or load balancer may use the techniques herein to perform client authentication using a certificate-based identity provider. A client may send a request for access to a service of the provider network. In response, the service or a load balancer may redirect the request to a certificate-based identity provider in accordance with a standard identity protocol (e.g., a federated identity protocol such as the protocol for OpenID Connect (OIDC)). The certificate-based identity provider may obtain a client certificate and validate the client certificate. The identity provider may also obtain and verify other credentials. In response to validating the client certificate (and in some cases authenticating the credentials), the certificate-based identity provider may generate and sign an identity token and redirect the client back to the service in accordance with the identity protocol.