Device-Bound Token Authentication Using Posture Signals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional identity and access management tools are deficient in managing user access privileges efficiently, leading to vulnerabilities such as token theft, which compromises the security of organizational resources.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for user authentication on a device that generates a proof-of-possession keypair, signs a header with a private key, and transmits it via a loopback interface to an identity management platform, ensuring tokens are bound to the device, thereby reducing the likelihood of token theft.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional identity and access management tools are used to manage user access privileges, then the burden of managing multiple users is reduced, but security vulnerabilities such as token theft occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by binding tokens to device identifiers before authentication occurs. The authentication server binds the access token to the device identifier in the authentication request, ensuring that the token is specifically tied to the device before it can be used for resource access. This preliminary binding prevents token theft because stolen tokens cannot be used on different devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The device identifier acts as an intermediary between the user and the resource access system. Instead of directly authenticating users with tokens that can be stolen, the system introduces a device binding mechanism where the token is mediated through the device identifier. This intermediary layer ensures that even if a token is compromised, it remains useless without the corresponding device identifier.
2Ease of operation
If tokens are made portable for easy access, then user convenience is improved, but the risk of unauthorized access increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary binding of tokens to device identifiers before the tokens are issued to users. This ensures that tokens are pre-configured to work only with specific devices, maintaining convenience for authorized users while preventing unauthorized access. The binding occurs in advance during the authentication process, so users experience no additional complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The token binding mechanism applies local quality by making each token specific to a particular device identifier rather than universally portable. The token's effectiveness is localized to the device it was issued to, ensuring that convenience is maintained for the authorized device while unauthorized devices cannot utilize the token even if obtained.
3Reliability
If device binding mechanisms are implemented to secure tokens, then security against token theft is improved, but the complexity of the authentication system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication server performs multiple functions within a single unified process: it authenticates the user, binds the token to the device identifier, and issues the access token all in one sequence. This multi-functionality approach avoids creating separate complex subsystems for each function, thereby limiting the increase in overall system complexity while achieving enhanced security through device binding.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, systems, and devices for user authentication are described. A first device may generate a keypair at a secure module. The keypair includes a public key and a private key that is stored at the secure module. The first device may authenticate the first device and a user of the first device with an identity management platform and may generate a header at an authentication client based on the authenticating. The header may be generated in accordance with an application-layer protocol for demonstrating proof-of-possession (DPoD). The first device may collect device signals and sign the header with the private key and the device signals based on a web client invoking the authentication client via a loopback interface and the authentication client accessing the secure module. The first device may transmit the signed header to a server of the identity management platform via the web client.