Cryptographic Provisioning Enforcement for Software Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current software deployment lacks a strong enforcement mechanism for adhering to localized provisioning policies across different computing environments, leading to potential violations by systems administrators.
Innovation Solution
Assigning a verifying key as part of a cryptographic key pair to computing devices, which is used by firmware, boot loaders, operating system kernels, or package managers to verify applications and enforce compliance with the provisioning policy by checking digital signatures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a systems administrator manually deploys software based on provisioning policy, then deployment flexibility is maintained, but policy enforcement reliability deteriorates due to human error and lack of strong enforcement mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-signing software applications with cryptographic signatures before deployment. The signing key is used to generate digital signatures that are attached to applications in advance, enabling automatic verification at deployment time without requiring manual administrative judgment. This pre-prepared cryptographic authentication mechanism ensures reliable policy enforcement while maintaining operational simplicity.
2Reliability
If cryptographic verification is implemented to enforce provisioning policy, then policy compliance is improved, but system complexity increases due to key management and signature verification infrastructure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the cryptographic verification functionality into separate, dedicated components: a signing key held by the software provider and verifying keys embedded in the computing devices. This separation allows the complex cryptographic operations to be isolated from the general deployment process, making the overall system easier to manage. The verification key is extracted and embedded directly in the device firmware or boot loader, eliminating the need for complex runtime key management.
Solution Approach 2:
The computing device performs self-verification of application signatures using its embedded verifying key. The firmware application, boot loader, or package manager automatically checks the cryptographic signature of deployed software without requiring external verification services or manual administrative intervention. This self-service approach to verification reduces the complexity of centralized key management infrastructure while maintaining strong enforcement capabilities.
3Ease of operation
If manual software deployment is allowed without strong enforcement, then ease of operation is maintained, but security deteriorates due to potential policy violations and unauthorized software deployment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces cryptographic signatures as an intermediary mechanism between the software application and the deployment process. The digital signature acts as a trusted mediator that automatically validates whether software complies with provisioning policy. This intermediary verification step maintains ease of operation by automating the compliance check, while simultaneously preventing unauthorized deployment through cryptographic authentication of the software's provenance and intended environment.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method are disclosed for enforcing site or organization localized provisioning policy using cryptography. In an exemplary method, a signing key is used to generate a signature for an application. The signature of the application is verified using a verifying key in order to determine whether the application adheres to the site or organization localized provisioning policy. The verifying may be performed during initialization of a computing device or during runtime of an operating system at the computing device.