Integrity Focused Authentication Service Key Synchronization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing authentication services can compromise security if compromised or untrustworthy, as they may provide falsified responses to authentication requests, leading to potential security breaches.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for integrity-focused authentication that synchronizes keys between a service provider and client devices, allowing the service provider to verify responses without relying on the authentication service, using a trust-on-first-use approach with additional security layers for anomaly detection and policy compliance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If authentication service is used to facilitate authentication, then authentication efficiency is improved, but security reliability deteriorates if the authentication service is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary authentication service that acts as a mediator between the service provider and authentication devices. This intermediary handles authentication requests and responses, improving efficiency while maintaining security through cryptographic verification. The service provider delegates authentication tasks to this intermediary, which then coordinates with authentication devices using encrypted channels and verified responses, thus resolving the contradiction between efficiency improvement and security maintenance.
2Ease of operation
If authentication service is trusted to provide responses, then authentication process is simplified, but security vulnerability increases if the service is untrustworthy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by implementing cryptographic verification mechanisms before the authentication service can potentially provide falsified responses. The service provider establishes trusted cryptographic keys and verification protocols in advance, so that even if the authentication service becomes untrustworthy, it cannot provide valid falsified responses. This preliminary security measure simplifies the authentication process while preventing security vulnerabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the service provider verifies authentication responses through cryptographic validation. The authentication service provides responses, and the service provider checks these responses against pre-established cryptographic keys and protocols. This feedback loop ensures that simplified authentication processes maintain security by continuously verifying the authenticity of responses.
3Reliability
If authentication service is compromised, then authentication integrity is lost, but system complexity increases to prevent compromise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the critical security verification functions from the authentication service itself and places them in the service provider's system. Instead of relying on the authentication service to provide both authentication and verification, the service provider maintains its own cryptographic verification capabilities. This extraction ensures authentication integrity even if the authentication service is compromised, while keeping system complexity manageable by only extracting essential verification functions.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for authentication. At an authentication service, key synchronization information is stored for an enrolled authentication device for a user identifier of a service provider. The key synchronization information indicates that a private key stored by the authentication device is synchronized with a public key stored at the service provider. Responsive to an authentication request provided by the service provider for the user identifier, the authentication service determines an authentication device for the user identifier that stores a synchronized private key by using the key synchronization information, and provides the authentication request to the authentication device. The authentication service provides a signed authentication response to the service provider. The authentication response is responsive to the authentication request and signed by using the private key. The service provider verifies the signed authentication response by using the public key.