Certificate Revocation List Segmentation for Cloud Validation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current Certificate Revocation List (CRL) management is inefficient, particularly in multi-tenant environments, as large CRLs lead to slow validation times and potential acceptance of revoked certificates due to caching and distribution challenges, impacting authentication performance.
Innovation Solution
Divide the CRL into manageable segments using a predefined number of serial numbers per segment, apply a consistent hashing algorithm to determine segment placement, and utilize metadata with encryption and message authentication to maintain tamper resistance, caching segments in a remote cache to reduce resource consumption and optimize retrieval.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the CRL is stored as a single large file, then the complete revocation list is available, but the retrieval time increases and validation becomes slow
Solution Approach 1:
The CRL is divided into multiple segments, each containing a subset of revoked certificate serial numbers. This segmentation allows the system to retrieve only the necessary segments for validation rather than the entire CRL, significantly reducing retrieval time while maintaining complete revocation checking capability.
2Productivity
If the CRL is cached locally, then validation speed improves, but memory consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the CRL, the system can cache only the relevant segments in memory rather than the entire CRL, reducing memory consumption while maintaining fast validation speed for the specific certificates being checked.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hierarchical caching structure with local and remote caches operating at different levels. The local cache stores frequently accessed segments for fast validation, while the remote cache stores additional segments, creating a multi-dimensional caching approach that balances memory usage and validation speed.
3Loss of time
If the CRL is divided into segments, then retrieval time decreases, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically determines which CRL segments to retrieve and validates certificates against the appropriate segments without requiring manual configuration or complex user intervention. The segmentation and retrieval logic is handled autonomously by the validation system.
4Productivity
If CRL segments are stored in both local and remote cache, then retrieval optimization is achieved, but resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements selective caching where CRL segments are cached in the remote cache for all servers in a region, but only loaded into local memory when actually needed for validation. This partial caching approach optimizes retrieval while avoiding the resource consumption of maintaining complete copies in both caches simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
A CRL can be divided into a number of segments. The number of segments into which the CRL is divided can be determined by using a predefined number of serial numbers per segment. The segment in which a particular certificate is included can be determined by application of a consistent hashing algorithm to the serial number of the certificate to determine in which segment the serial number will be found if revoked, thereby increasing the efficiency of determining the revocation status of the certificate. Metadata common to each CRL can be cached on each server and on the remote cache. The segments themselves can be cached in the remote cache. Storing the segments only in the remote cache decreases resource consumption (e.g., amount of memory used in the local cache). Storing the segments in the remote cache enables optimization for locality.