Code Authentication Service for Scannable Code URL Validation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing use of scannable codes, such as QR codes, to embed URLs poses a security risk due to the potential for malicious actors to create URLs that closely mimic legitimate ones, often using URL shorteners, leading to phishing or malware installation, as users implicitly trust the information conveyed by these codes.
Innovation Solution
A code authentication service that maintains a mapping of uniform resource locators (URLs) and key information, verifying the authenticity of URLs before redirection by generating cryptographic keys and using a secure URL service engine to validate and block malicious URLs, ensuring only legitimate URLs are accessed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If scannable codes with embedded URLs are used for convenient information access, then ease of operation is improved, but security risks increase due to potential malicious URLs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a code authentication service as an intermediary between the scannable code and the target URL. This service receives DNS resolution requests for URLs embedded in scannable codes, validates them against a database of legitimate URLs, and only allows resolution if the URL is authenticated. This mediator approach maintains the convenience of direct URL access while adding a security layer that blocks malicious URLs without requiring user awareness or action.
2Ease of operation
If URL shorteners are used to simplify embedded URLs, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to increased difficulty in detecting malicious URLs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary validation of URLs before they are resolved. The code authentication service maintains a database of pre-authenticated legitimate URLs and their corresponding short codes. When a DNS resolution request is received for a URL embedded in a scannable code, the service checks if the URL matches an authenticated entry in the database before allowing resolution. This preliminary action ensures that even shortened URLs can be validated for authenticity, maintaining reliability while preserving the simplicity benefits of URL shortening.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If cryptographic validation is implemented for URL authentication, then security is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a self-service authentication mechanism where the code authentication service automatically validates URLs without requiring manual intervention or complex client-side cryptography. The service maintains a database of authenticated URLs with their cryptographic signatures, and the validation process is automatically performed by the service when DNS resolution requests are received. This self-service approach provides strong cryptographic security while keeping the system relatively simple, as the complexity is centralized in the authentication service rather than distributed across all client devices.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a code authentication service maintains a mapping of uniform resource locators and key information embedded into codes. The code authentication service receives, from a requesting device, a domain name system resolution request for a particular uniform resource locator. The code authentication service determines, based on the mapping, whether the domain name system resolution request is associated with valid key information for the particular uniform resource locator. The code authentication service provides, to the requesting device, a domain name system resolution response that indicates an address associated with the particular uniform resource locator, when the code authentication service determines that the domain name system resolution request includes valid key information for the particular uniform resource locator.