Client Certificate Attribute Extraction for Trusted Service Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
In client-server networks, there is a challenge in authenticating and authorizing clients to access shareable services while maintaining data privacy and segregating data among multiple partners, as existing systems struggle to distinguish between different partners and ensure secure, trusted communication.
Innovation Solution
A client certificate is used to authenticate and authorize clients, containing attributes like certificate ID, tenant ID, and role ID, which are extracted and reformatted for trusted communication, ensuring secure access to shareable services and data segregation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If client certificates are used to authenticate and authorize clients, then security and data privacy are improved, but device complexity and authentication process complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
Client certificates are pre-configured on client devices before they need to access services. The certificates, containing attributes like tenant ID and role ID, are issued in advance by a certificate authority, eliminating the need for complex runtime authentication negotiations and reducing authentication process complexity while maintaining high security
Solution Approach 2:
A gateway server acts as an intermediary between clients and application servers. The gateway server extracts attributes from client certificates and reformats them into standardized messages, simplifying the authentication process for both clients and servers while maintaining strong security through certificate-based authentication
2Loss of information
If client certificates with multiple attributes are extracted and reformatted, then trusted communication and data segregation are improved, but information processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway server extracts specific attributes (tenant ID, role ID, certificate ID) from the client certificate into separate, manageable components. This extraction allows the system to process and enforce data segregation policies based on individual attributes rather than handling the entire certificate structure, reducing information processing complexity while maintaining data segregation
Solution Approach 2:
Different attributes from the client certificate are assigned to different processing functions: tenant ID for data segregation, role ID for authorization, and certificate ID for identification. Each attribute is processed locally by the gateway server according to its specific purpose, improving trusted communication while managing complexity through specialized processing
3Measurement precision
If attributes are extracted from client certificates for authorization, then access control precision is improved, but authentication time increases
Solution Approach 1:
Client certificates are pre-configured with all necessary attributes (tenant ID, role ID, certificate ID) before authentication is needed. This preliminary configuration eliminates the need for time-consuming attribute verification and negotiation during the authentication process, reducing authentication time while maintaining precise access control through the pre-set attributes
Solution Approach 2:
The client certificate contains all authorization information needed for access control decisions. The gateway server can independently extract and process attributes from the self-contained certificate without needing to query external sources or perform complex verification, achieving both precise access control and fast authentication
Data Source
AI summary
A device comprises: a receiver configured to receive a client certificate; a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to: authenticate the client certificate, extract, in response to the authentication, attributes from the client certificate, and create, in response to the extraction, a message comprising reformatted attributes based on the attributes, wherein the reformatted attributes can be trusted; and a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to transmit the message. A device comprises: a processor configured to: process a client certificate comprising a certificate identifier (ID) attribute, a tenant ID attribute, and a role ID attribute, and package the client certificate in a request for a shared service; and a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to transmit the request.