External Key Regeneration Through Mapped Authentication Seeds
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cryptographic key systems face challenges in maintaining security and flexibility due to the loss or compromise of individual authentication factors, leading to potential unauthorized access and difficulty in updating keys without compromising the existing key.
Innovation Solution
A method involving multi-factor authentication systems that bind biometric, device, and password factors to intermediate secrets, using cryptographic hashes and error correction techniques to generate and regenerate cryptographic keys, ensuring security and flexibility by updating factors without changing the key.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cryptographic keys are stored securely, then security is improved, but accessibility and flexibility deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The cryptographic key is segmented into multiple authentication factors (biometric data, device identifiers, passwords) that are stored separately. Each factor contributes a portion of the key material, and none of the individual factors alone can reconstruct the full key. This segmentation improves security while maintaining accessibility through multi-factor authentication.
Solution Approach 2:
A key derivation function acts as an intermediary that combines multiple authentication factors and transforms them into the cryptographic key. This mediator process ensures that even if individual factors are compromised, the full key cannot be reconstructed without all factors, thereby improving security while preserving accessibility through the structured combination process.
2Adaptability or versatility
If individual authentication factors are updated, then adaptability is improved, but key consistency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows individual authentication factors to change parameters (biometric data, device identifiers, passwords) while maintaining key consistency through a stable key derivation function. When factors are updated, the same derivation function processes the new factor values to generate updated key material, ensuring that the key generation process remains consistent even as input parameters change.
Solution Approach 2:
The key derivation function is established in advance and remains constant. This preliminary action ensures that regardless of how authentication factors are updated over time, the same derivation process is applied, maintaining consistency in key generation while allowing flexibility in factor updates.
3Reliability
If cryptographic keys are regenerated frequently, then security is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The key derivation function operates continuously and efficiently, combining multiple authentication factors into cryptographic key material without requiring full key regeneration when individual factors are updated. This continuous process maintains security while minimizing time loss by only processing the changed factors through the established derivation function rather than regenerating entire key sets.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a method including identifying a first key seed for an external key; generating a second key seed from a first instance of first data from a first source; computing a mapping function between the first key seed and the second key seed, where the mapping function is stored and the first key seed and second key seed are discarded; generating a third key seed from a second instance of second data from a second source; applying the mapping function to the third key seed to generate a fourth key seed; and regenerating the external key using the fourth key seed.