Factory CA Certificate Validation via Trust Chain
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Solution Overview
Problem
In offline manufacturing facilities, identifying the correct Certificate Authority (CA) for unique products and firmware versions is challenging due to the presence of hundreds of CAs, leading to issues with certificate validity and authentication when new or replacement CAs are introduced.
Innovation Solution
A method involving generating a secure management mode public-private key pair, creating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) with a common name associated with a trusted root CA, sending it to a signing server, receiving a signed certificate from a factory CA, and validating it using a trust chain signed by the root CA to enable secure management mode.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple Certificate Authorities are used to support various products and firmware versions, then system versatility and product support are improved, but device complexity and difficulty of identifying the correct CA increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a trust chain as an intermediary structure that connects the factory CA certificate to a trusted root certificate. This trust chain acts as a mediator that allows the system to verify the authenticity of CAs without needing to directly manage or identify each individual CA, thereby reducing the complexity of managing multiple CAs while maintaining versatility across products and firmware versions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary validation by establishing a trust chain that links the factory CA to a pre-trusted root certificate before actual authentication operations. This preliminary action of pre-configuring trust relationships eliminates the need to dynamically identify and verify individual CA identities during runtime, simplifying the overall CA management process.
2Reliability
If traditional certificate validation methods are used, then implementation simplicity is maintained, but authentication reliability and security are compromised due to inability to verify correct CA identity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical certificate validation methods with a cryptographic trust chain verification mechanism. Instead of relying on simple certificate presence checks, the system uses cryptographic signatures and chain validation to automatically verify the authenticity and correctness of the CA identity, thereby improving authentication reliability while the automated nature of the process prevents excessive complexity increase.
3Productivity
If manual CA identification processes are used, then system simplicity is maintained, but productivity and efficiency decrease due to time-consuming verification processes
Solution Approach 1:
The trust chain is pre-configured and validated before runtime operations. By performing the complex verification of CA authenticity and hierarchy in advance, the system eliminates time-consuming manual identification processes during actual authentication operations, thereby improving productivity without sacrificing validation thoroughness.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes generating a secure management mode public-private key pair; generating a certificate signing request, the certificate signing request including the secure management mode public key of the secure management mode public-private key pair, the certificate signing request including a common name associated with a trusted root certificate authority; sending the secure management mode certificate signing request to a signing server; receiving a signed certificate signed by a factory certificate authority, a public key certificate for the factory certificate authority, and a trust chain signed by the trusted root certificate authority; validating the signed certificate; and enabling a secure management mode.