Opaque Groups in Federated Identity Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing federated identity management systems require users' true identities to be shared, making it impossible to obscure membership in groups, which can be a security concern for competing organizations or entities that need to collaborate anonymously.
Innovation Solution
Implementing opaque groups within a federated identity management system, where members' true identities are known only to their home identity providers, and service providers use secondary identities or indirection points to mask the true identities of group members, allowing anonymous participation without revealing primary identities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If true identities are shared in federated identity management systems, then authentication and authorization can be properly performed, but membership in groups cannot be obscured and all members can see each other's true identities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces identity providers as intermediaries that hold true identities and translate them into group identifiers. Service providers communicate using group identifiers rather than true identities, with the identity provider acting as a mediator to resolve identities when needed for authentication. This intermediary layer enables anonymous group membership while maintaining reliable authentication.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments identity information into different levels: true identities are held by identity providers, group identifiers are used for service communication, and mappings between them are maintained separately. This segmentation allows authentication to work at the true identity level while group membership remains anonymous at the service level.
2Ease of operation
If group members can see each other's true identities, then full transparency is achieved, but competing organizations cannot collaborate anonymously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making identity visibility context-dependent: true identities are visible to identity providers for authentication purposes, but group identifiers are visible to service providers for communication. The mapping between identities and group identifiers is localized to the identity provider, creating different visibility qualities in different system contexts.
3Productivity
If service providers know group members' true identities, then direct communication is possible, but identity privacy and security are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The identity provider serves as an intermediary that enables service providers to communicate with group members without knowing their true identities. The service provider sends messages to group identifiers, and the identity provider translates these into deliveries to individual members, maintaining both communication efficiency and identity privacy.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for using an opaque group within a federated identity management environment, to prevent disclosure of identities of the group. An opaque group is constructed at an identity provider within the system and has a group identity that references primary system identities of its members (e.g., electronic mail addresses, public key certificates, network addresses). Services to the group (e.g., distribution of an object such as a document or electronic mail message, invitation to an online meeting, authentication as a member of the group) can be requested from service providers, but because service providers do not have access to members' primary identities, the service providers forward the requests to an identity provider that has access to the group identity. That identity provider retrieves the members' identities and completes the action.