Credential Agent for Cloud Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing customer account credentials across multiple applications and services provided by computing resource service providers is challenging due to the need for credential rotation and secure distribution, leading to complexity in authentication and authorization.
Innovation Solution
A system where an agent is hosted on the customer's application server, registered as a trusted credential provider, and uses a digital certificate to obtain short-term credentials from a credential server, which are then relayed to applications, simplifying credential management and reducing the burden on application developers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If customer account credentials are distributed to multiple applications and services, then access to computing resource service provider services is enabled, but credential management complexity increases due to rotation and security requirements
Solution Approach 1:
An agent is introduced as an intermediary component hosted on the customer's application server. This agent acts as a trusted credential provider that mediates between the applications/services and the computing resource service provider's authentication service. The agent obtains credentials on behalf of applications and relays them securely, eliminating the need for applications to directly manage credentials and thus reducing credential management complexity while maintaining access capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The credential management functionality is extracted from the applications themselves and consolidated into a dedicated agent component. By separating credential acquisition and management duties from business logic applications, the system reduces the credential management burden on application developers while preserving service access capabilities.
2Reliability
If credentials are stored by multiple applications, then service access is maintained, but security risks increase and credential rotation becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The agent serves as a secure intermediary that centralizes credential storage and management. Instead of multiple applications storing credentials independently (creating security risks), the agent holds credentials securely and provides them to applications as needed. This maintains service access reliability while reducing security risks associated with widespread credential distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements short-term credentials that have limited validity periods. The agent obtains fresh credentials periodically and relays them to applications. These temporary credentials reduce security risks compared to long-term static credentials, while the agent's management ensures service access continuity through automated credential renewal.
3Ease of operation
If applications maintain copies of account credentials, then authentication is enabled, but the burden on application developers increases
Solution Approach 1:
The agent operates autonomously to acquire, manage, and renew credentials without requiring application developers to implement credential management logic. The agent self-manages the credential lifecycle including obtaining credentials from the authentication service, storing them securely, and providing them to applications. This enables authentication capability while eliminating the development burden of credential management from application code.
Solution Approach 2:
Credential management responsibilities are extracted from application code and consolidated into the agent component. Applications no longer need to contain credential acquisition, storage, or rotation logic, reducing development complexity while maintaining authentication functionality through the agent's services.
Data Source
AI summary
A system provides credential management for computer systems and services within a customer data center by acting as an intermediary to an authentication service of a computing resource service provider. In an embodiment, an application server hosts an agent that is registered as a trusted provider of credentials. In an embodiment, the agent is cryptographically linked to the application server using a digital certificate. In an embodiment, the agent uses the digital certificate to authenticate with a credential server, and the credential server provides short-term credentials that may be used to access services of the computing resource service provider. In an embodiment, the short-term credentials are transmitted from the credential server to the agent, and the agent provides the credentials to one or more applications running on the application server. In an embodiment, the credentials allow the applications to access the services of the computing resource service provider.