Session-Centric Access Control for Ephemeral SSH Shells
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing SSH connections often provide excessive and prolonged access to sensitive environments, increasing security risks due to the lack of session-centric access control.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of session-centric access control for ephemeral secure shells, which involves receiving a remote connection request, redirecting it to a trusted authority, creating a container for the connection with authorized endpoints, and using single-use credentials to initiate a secure shell with limited access and time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional SSH connections are used with persistent key pairs, then ease of operation is improved, but security is worsened due to excessive and prolonged access to sensitive environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements ephemeral SSH shells that use temporary, single-use credentials instead of persistent key pairs. Each SSH connection is granted a time-limited certificate that automatically expires after a predetermined period (e.g., five minutes), eliminating the need for long-term credential management while maintaining security. The ephemeral shell is created, used immediately, and then destroyed, ensuring that access credentials do not persist beyond their functional need.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the lifetime of SSH credentials based on the specific access request. Rather than using static, long-term key pairs, the patent creates ephemeral certificates with predetermined expiration times that are tailored to each connection request. This dynamic approach allows the system to grant appropriate access duration for each task while automatically revoking access when the time limit is reached.
2Adaptability or versatility
If SSH connections provide broad access to environments, then adaptability is improved, but security is worsened due to increased risk of unauthorized access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the access permissions by creating isolated ephemeral shells for each specific access request. Instead of granting broad, persistent access through a single key pair, the system divides access into multiple discrete, time-limited sessions. Each ephemeral shell is created with specific credentials that are valid only for that particular connection and expire automatically, thereby segmenting the attack surface and limiting the impact of any single compromised credential.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies are shown for session centric access control of a remote connection. A request for a remote connection is received from a client. A container is created for the remote connection, and an identifier for each of one or more endpoints authorized for the remote connection are stored in the container. A secure shell is initiated for the remote connection. Access is provided to the first endpoint from the one or more endpoints via the secure shell based on a first identifier for the first endpoint being stored in the container.