Ephemeral Credential System for Least-Privilege Network Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems face challenges in managing and securing privileged access to network resources, leading to increased risks of unauthorized access due to long-standing privileged accounts, which are difficult to track and manage, especially in large organizations, providing attackers with opportunities to infiltrate secure networks.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a dynamic and least-privilege access system that uses native clients and communication protocols to create ephemeral accounts with restricted permissions, allowing access only when needed, and decommissioning these accounts after use, thereby reducing the number of standing privileged accounts and enhancing security without requiring additional agents or software installations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If long-lived credentials are provided for persistent authorization, then users can easily access network resources, but the number of standing privileged accounts increases providing attackers more opportunities to infiltrate secure resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic credential generation where ephemeral credentials are created on-demand for each access request rather than using static long-lived credentials. The system dynamically determines whether to grant access based on current context and creates temporary credentials that expire after use, making the authorization system adaptive and responsive to real-time security requirements while minimizing the attack surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses ephemeral credentials that are short-lived and disposable, replacing persistent privileged accounts with temporary access tokens. These ephemeral credentials are generated only when needed, used immediately, and then discarded, eliminating the need for long-standing privileged accounts that attackers could target over extended periods.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If just-in-time privileged access is implemented to minimize standing privileged accounts, then security is improved, but the system becomes difficult to use requiring agent installation and large-scale implementation complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary authorization system that sits between the client application and the network resource. This intermediary handles the complex logic of determining whether ephemeral credentials should be generated, managing the credential lifecycle, and coordinating with the resource provider service, thereby simplifying the client-side implementation while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service capabilities where the authorization service automatically determines whether to grant access and generates ephemeral credentials without requiring manual intervention or complex client-side agent installation. The native client applications can directly interact with the authorization service using standard protocols, eliminating the need for additional software deployments.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If ephemeral credentials are generated for each access request, then the number of standing privileged accounts is reduced, but the authorization process becomes more complex requiring policy evaluation and dynamic credential management
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-defining access policies and credential generation rules before access requests occur. The system establishes beforehand which resources can be accessed with ephemeral credentials, what conditions must be met, and how credentials should be generated and managed, thereby simplifying the real-time authorization decision-making process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses parameter changes by transforming static authorization configurations into dynamic parameters that can be evaluated at runtime. The access policies define parameters such as resource identifiers, condition expressions, and credential lifetimes that are instantiated and evaluated for each access request, allowing flexible authorization without hardcoding complex decision logic.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed embodiments relate to providing dynamic and least-privilege access to network resources. Techniques include receiving a request from a network identity to access a network resource, authenticating the network identity using a native client and communication protocol, authorizing the network identity based on one or more access policy, generating a least privilege ephemeral account having ephemeral credentials, accessing the network resource using the ephemeral credentials, and enabling the network identity to access the network resource using the least-privilege ephemeral account using the native client and communication protocol. The techniques may further include matching an existing account to the network identity based on the one or more access policy and enabling the network identity to access the network resource using the matched existing account using the native client and communication protocol.