Authentication Challenge Expiration Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing authentication systems require clients to communicate exhaustive lists of authentication capabilities over networks, leading to privacy concerns and inefficiencies, particularly in handling random challenges and multiple device authentication.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a query policy where a secure transaction server transmits a server policy to the client, allowing the client to identify a subset of accepted authentication capabilities, enabling concurrent multi-device authentication, and automatically requesting new challenges when previous ones expire, while employing transaction signing for enhanced security and efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the server maintains session state for random challenges, then authentication reliability is improved, but server complexity and memory usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the session state maintenance from the server by implementing challenge expiration timestamps that are self-contained in the challenge data itself. The server no longer needs to maintain external session state, as the challenge's validity period is embedded within the challenge object, allowing the client to determine expiration locally.
Solution Approach 2:
The challenge object becomes self-sufficient by including its own expiration timestamp and validity information. The client can independently determine whether a challenge is expired by comparing the current time with the embedded expiration time, eliminating the need for server-side session management.
2Reliability
If the client requests new challenges frequently to prevent expiration, then authentication reliability is improved, but network traffic and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by embedding the expiration timestamp in the challenge object itself, allowing the client to proactively detect expiration before it occurs and request new challenges in advance. This prevents authentication failures without requiring continuous polling or frequent requests, as the client can plan ahead based on the known expiration time.
Solution Approach 2:
The challenge object provides feedback about its own validity period through embedded timestamps. The client uses this feedback to determine when to request new challenges, creating an efficient feedback loop that minimizes unnecessary network traffic while ensuring challenges are renewed before expiration.
3Reliability
If the system uses exhaustive authentication capability lists, then security is improved, but privacy impact increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary authentication capability information from the exhaustive list and transmits it separately to the server. The client device identifier and selected authentication capability are transmitted in the authentication request, while the complete capability list remains on the client side, reducing privacy impact while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The authentication capability information is segmented into two parts: the complete capability list stored locally on the client, and the selected subset transmitted to the server during authentication. This segmentation allows the system to maintain comprehensive security information while minimizing the exposure of sensitive capability data over the network.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for transparently requesting a new random challenge from a server within an authentication framework. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: transmitting a random challenge and an indication of a timeout period associated with the random challenge from a server to a client within the context of a network registration or authentication process using authentication devices communicatively coupled to the client; automatically detecting that the random challenge is no longer valid based on the timeout period; and responsively transmitting a request for a new random challenge from the client to a server, wherein transmitting is performed transparently to a user of the client.