Credential Change Detection via Embedded Secret Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current network security measures fail to prevent unauthorized changes to authentication credentials, allowing malicious insiders or attackers to compromise privileged accounts and bypass secure credential management systems.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that generates a secret data element from a set of authentication credentials, embedding it in new credentials, and validating changes to ensure only authorized modifications are made, using techniques like tree hashing or summation functions, with control actions such as rejecting or alerting on unauthorized attempts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If privileged accounts are allowed to reset passwords and credentials, then account management flexibility is improved, but security risk increases due to potential unauthorized changes by insiders or attackers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a credential change detection mechanism that acts as an intermediary between privileged accounts and the credential vault. This mechanism monitors and validates credential changes, allowing legitimate password resets while blocking unauthorized modifications. The intermediary validates whether changes originate from authorized sources and是否符合 credential policies, thus maintaining operational flexibility while mitigating security risks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring credential changes and comparing them against authorized changes. When a credential change is detected, the system provides feedback by validating the change source and content, and either permitting or blocking the change based on policy compliance. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures that privileged account operations remain flexible while maintaining security controls.
2Reliability
If regular password rotation is enforced, then security against stolen credentials is improved, but system complexity increases due to centralized policy management requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges password rotation enforcement with the credential change detection mechanism. The same system that monitors for unauthorized changes also enforces regular password rotation by validating timestamp and policy compliance of credential changes. This consolidation reduces overall system complexity while maintaining reliable protection against stolen credentials.
Solution Approach 2:
The credential change detection system is designed to perform multiple functions: detecting unauthorized changes, enforcing password rotation policies, and validating credential changes against security policies. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate systems for each function, reducing complexity while improving reliability through comprehensive credential management.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If privileged account permissions are restricted, then security against insider threats is improved, but operational efficiency decreases due to limited account access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic permission validation where privileged accounts retain full permissions but each credential change operation is dynamically validated against policy and source authorization. The system adapts its response based on the specific operation: allowing legitimate changes while blocking suspicious ones. This dynamic approach maintains operational efficiency by not preemptively restricting access while still protecting against insider threats through real-time validation.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques include securely maintaining data associated with a plurality of authentication credentials; generating, as a function of the data associated with a selected group of the plurality of authentication credentials, a secret data element; making available, the secret data element, to be embedded in a first authentication credential; identifying an attempt to change the first authentication credential, the attempt including new authentication credential data to replace data in the first authentication credential; validating, conditional on whether the new authentication credential data includes the secret data element, the new authentication credential data; and determining, based on the validating, whether to perform a control action based on the new authentication credential data.