Device Authentication Tolerance via Digital Fingerprint Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing authentication methods for devices in secured networks often reject valid devices after hardware or software upgrades, due to changes in device fingerprints, leading to unnecessary denial of access.
Innovation Solution
A method that builds tolerance into the authentication process by generating and comparing digital fingerprints, allowing for upgrades by using a first digital fingerprint from initial components, and generating a third fingerprint using the same components to authenticate the device, reducing the risk of rejecting valid devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If strict authentication comparison is used, then security is improved, but device accessibility after upgrades deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication system segments the device fingerprint into multiple components, each corresponding to a specific hardware or software component. This allows the system to compare individual components independently and identify which components have changed, rather than rejecting the entire device fingerprint as different.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the authentication parameter from a strict exact-match comparison to a tolerance-based comparison that allows for certain parameter variations. By defining acceptable differences in fingerprint components and using component-level analysis, the system accommodates legitimate upgrades while maintaining security for unchanged core components.
2Measurement precision
If exact fingerprint matching is enforced, then authentication accuracy is improved, but false rejection of valid devices increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial matching by comparing only the unchanged or critically important components of the device fingerprint, rather than requiring all components to match exactly. This partial action approach allows the authentication to succeed based on sufficient evidence from key components, reducing false rejections while maintaining precision where it matters most.
Solution Approach 2:
The system prepares for potential fingerprint variations by establishing tolerance thresholds and component-level comparison rules in advance. This beforehand cushioning creates a buffer that absorbs the impact of legitimate changes, preventing false rejections before they occur while still detecting genuine security threats.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for building tolerance into authentication of a computing device includes a means for executing, from a computer-readable medium, computer-implementable steps of: (a) receiving and storing a first digital fingerprint of the device during a first boot of an authenticating software on the device, the first digital fingerprint based on a first set of device components, (b) receiving a second digital fingerprint from the device at a subsequent time, (c) comparing the second digital fingerprint with a plurality of stored digital fingerprints of known devices, (d) in response to the comparison indicating a mismatch between the second digital fingerprint and the plurality of stored digital fingerprints, generating a request code comprising instructions for the device to generate a third digital fingerprint using the first set of device components, (e) sending the request code to the remote device, (f) receiving the third digital fingerprint from the remote device in response to the request code, and (g) authenticating the device based on a comparison of the first and third digital fingerprints.