Deferred Edge Authentication for Multi-Tenant CDN Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional content delivery networks face significant operational overhead and inaccuracies in maintaining security information for multi-tenant systems, particularly when scaling, due to the need for exhaustive edge-based access control dictionaries and synchronous updates across the system.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves storing access control information in response headers attached to cached resources at edge servers, allowing for deferred authentication and reducing the reliance on edge-based dictionaries, thereby improving efficiency and flexibility in providing access to protected resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional content delivery networks store security information in edge server dictionaries, then access control can be enforced at the edge, but operational overhead increases significantly and system accuracy decreases when scaling to multiple tenants
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts security information from edge server dictionaries and relocates it to response headers attached to cached content items. This extraction eliminates the need for maintaining separate security dictionaries at edge servers, thereby reducing operational overhead while preserving access control functionality. The security information is now carried directly with the content it protects.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copy of security information and embeds it within response headers that travel with cached content items. This copying approach allows security validation to occur at the edge without requiring centralized dictionary lookups, improving both accuracy and reducing the complexity of maintaining synchronized security data across multiple edge servers.
2Productivity
If edge servers maintain cached security dictionaries for multi-tenant access control, then authentication can be performed at the edge, but synchronization overhead increases and system flexibility decreases when adding new tenants
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by embedding security information in response headers at the origin server before content is cached at edge servers. This preliminary inclusion of security data eliminates the need for subsequent synchronization operations when adding new tenants, as each content item carries its own security context. New tenants can be added without requiring dictionary updates at edge servers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the static security dictionary model into a dynamic header-based model where security information travels with each content item. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt flexibly to new tenants and content without requiring structural changes or synchronization operations, enabling the system to evolve organically as new tenants are added.
3Reliability
If conventional systems use centralized security dictionaries at origin servers, then security management is centralized, but access control speed decreases due to remote validation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments security information from the centralized dictionary and attaches it to individual content items in response headers. This segmentation allows edge servers to perform local validation using the embedded security data, eliminating the need for remote dictionary lookups. Centralized security management is maintained through the origin server's control over header generation, while access control speed improves through local validation at the edge.
Solution Approach 2:
The response header acts as an intermediary that carries security information from the origin server to edge servers. This intermediary mechanism enables decentralized validation at the edge while maintaining the authority and control of centralized security management at the origin server, resolving the speed-reliability contradiction by bridging local and centralized security operations.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to systems, non-transitory computer-readable media, and methods for utilizing deferred edge authentication to validate requests for resources of a content delivery network. In one or more embodiments, the disclosed systems receive, at an edge server from a client device, a request for a content item. In some embodiments, in response to receiving the request, the disclosed systems determine that the content item is stored at the edge server with a corresponding response header received from an origin server and validate the request, at the edge server, utilizing security information from the response header. In some embodiments, in response to receiving the request, the disclosed systems determine that the content item is not available at the edge server, request the content item from the origin server, and receive the content item with the corresponding response header from the origin server.