Dynamic Cookie Positioning for Encrypted Connection Security
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Hackers can capture session cookies over encrypted connections, such as SSL or TLS, to access sensitive user information by exploiting consistent cookie positions or compression ratios, posing a threat to user privacy.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a security device that generates and manages random cookies, altering their length and position in each request, thereby disrupting the hacker's ability to determine the session cookie's consistent position or compression ratio, using a reverse proxy to forward requests and responses and instructing the client device to use these random cookies in conjunction with session cookies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If session cookies are transmitted over encrypted connections with consistent positioning, then communication efficiency is improved, but security against hacking techniques deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic cookie positioning where the position of session cookies in HTTP requests changes with each communication session. A random offset value is generated and applied to shift the cookie position, making it unpredictable for attackers while maintaining valid communication protocols. This dynamic adjustment prevents hackers from capturing cookies at fixed positions in the encrypted stream.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the positional parameter of session cookies by introducing a random offset value that shifts the cookie's location within the HTTP request. This parameter change ensures that even though the cookie content remains the same, its position in the encrypted communication stream varies, thereby preventing attacks that rely on consistent positioning to extract session information.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If random cookies are generated and positions are altered in each request, then security against position-based attacks is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a security device that acts as an intermediary between the client and server. This device intercepts HTTP requests, dynamically adjusts cookie positions using random offsets, and forwards the modified requests to the server. The intermediary handles the complexity of randomization and position adjustment, keeping the client and server implementations simple while providing robust security against cookie extraction attacks.
Data Source
AI summary
A device may receive, from a first device, a first message that includes a first random cookie and a session cookie. The device may provide the first message to a second device. The device may receive, from the second device, a second message that includes a response to the first message. The device may generate a second random cookie. The second random cookie may be different from the first random cookie. The device may provide, to the first device, the second random cookie, the session cookie, and the response.