Certificate Management Interface for Multiple CAs
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Solution Overview
Problem
In environments with multiple certificate authorities, entities face administrative strain and risk due to abrupt changes in certificate signing requests, as they need to identify and select the appropriate CA for specific characteristics, which can be challenging, especially in high-volume systems.
Innovation Solution
An interface and manager system that appears as a single source for certificate signing requests, distributing them to multiple certificate authorities based on selection techniques such as load balancing, validation types, and network characteristics, ensuring seamless transitions and load management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If entities directly send certificate signing requests to multiple certificate authorities, then they can obtain certificates with specific characteristics, but administrative burden and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (certificate management system) that sits between entities and multiple certificate authorities. This intermediary receives certificate signing requests from entities, selects appropriate CAs based on required characteristics, and manages the certification process. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining adaptability to obtain specific certificate characteristics while reducing administrative burden through automated selection and management.
Solution Approach 2:
The certificate management system performs multiple functions: receiving requests, selecting CAs, managing certificates, and handling revocations. By creating a universal system that handles all these tasks, the patent reduces the need for entities to directly manage multiple CAs, thereby reducing administrative burden while maintaining the ability to obtain certificates with specific characteristics.
2Adaptability or versatility
If entities manage relationships with multiple certificate authorities directly, then they can select the right CA for specific validation types, but operational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The certificate management system acts as an intermediary that maintains relationships with multiple CAs and handles CA selection based on validation types. Entities interact only with the intermediary, which automatically selects the appropriate CA for the required validation type. This maintains adaptability while significantly reducing operational complexity for entities.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by allowing entities to submit certificate requests without directly managing CA relationships. The certificate management system automatically selects appropriate CAs and manages the certification process, reducing operational complexity while maintaining the ability to obtain certificates with specific validation characteristics.
3Productivity
If certificate signing request loads are distributed to multiple certificate authorities, then system capacity increases, but abrupt changes in load distribution create risk
Solution Approach 1:
The certificate management system implements feedback mechanisms to monitor load distribution across multiple CAs and adjust allocation dynamically. This allows the system to maintain high productivity by distributing loads while ensuring reliability through continuous monitoring and adjustment, preventing abrupt changes that could cause system instability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts certificate signing request distribution among multiple CAs based on current conditions. This dynamic approach allows the system to maintain high productivity by utilizing multiple CAs while ensuring reliability by adapting to changing conditions, thereby avoiding the risks associated with abrupt load changes.
4Ease of operation
If a single certificate authority is used for all certificate signing requests, then administrative management is simplified, but the system lacks flexibility for different validation types
Solution Approach 1:
The certificate management system provides a universal interface for entities while internally managing relationships with multiple specialized CAs. This allows simplified administrative management for entities (single point of contact) while maintaining flexibility for different validation types through the intermediary's ability to select appropriate specialized CAs.
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediary certificate management system simplifies administrative management by providing a single interface for entities while maintaining flexible relationships with multiple CAs. The intermediary handles the complexity of selecting appropriate CAs for different validation types, thereby simplifying operations for entities while preserving adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
An interface of a certificate management system acts as a target for management of digital authentication certificates from a group of candidate certificate authorities. Entities make certificate signing requests on behalf of subjects. The requests are received at an interface that appears to the requesting entities as a sole source of the signed certificates. But a certificate management component that processes the requests received by the interface applies a selection technique to select a particular certificate authority from a group of candidate certificate authorities available to sign the certificates. The certificate management component forwards the request to the particular certificate authority, receives back the signed certificate, and responds to the certificate signing request with the signed certificate. Although the certificate signing requests were all made via a same interface, the signed certificates can have different chains of trust. Various criteria may be used for the selection.