PKI Authentication Chain for Multi-Party Certificate Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing user authentication methods, particularly in IoT and metaverse environments, face challenges with security breaches due to the ease of loss, theft, or interception of IDs, passwords, and biometric data, and the need for enhanced security in multi-party transactions where PKI-based methods require numerous certificates.
Innovation Solution
A chain of authentication method using public key infrastructure (PKI) that generates modified public keys including authentication information from all previously authenticated parties, minimizing the number of required certificates and incorporating biometric codes for enhanced security, allowing stricter control by the issuing authority.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional PKI-based authentication methods are used for multi-party transactions, then authentication can be performed between parties, but the number of required certificates increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple certificate verification operations into a single modified public key structure. Instead of requiring separate certificates for each party in a multi-party transaction, the modified public key combines authentication information from all parties into one unified structure that can be verified in a single operation, thereby reducing the number of certificates from O(n²) to O(n) while maintaining authentication reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The modified public key serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as both an authentication credential and a verification token for multiple parties. This multi-functional design allows the same data structure to perform what previously required multiple separate certificates, reducing system complexity while preserving authentication capabilities across different transaction scenarios
2Reliability
If IDs, passwords, or biometric data are used for user authentication, then authentication can be performed, but these credentials are easy to be lost, stolen, or intercepted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical authentication systems (physical IDs, written passwords, biometric scanners) with a cryptographic system based on public key infrastructure. This substitution eliminates the physical vulnerabilities of traditional credentials by using mathematical problems (factoring, discrete logarithm) that are computationally infeasible to break, thereby maintaining authentication functionality while eliminating risks of loss, theft, or interception
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of authentication from storing sensitive secret data (passwords, biometric templates) to exchanging public cryptographic keys. This parameter change transforms the authentication mechanism from one that relies on secrecy of stored data to one that relies on the computational difficulty of deriving private keys from public keys, thereby eliminating the risk of interception while maintaining authentication reliability
Data Source
AI summary
A method for sequential authentication based on chain of authentication using public key infrastructure (PKI) is provided. The method includes generating, by a user, a first private key and a first public key corresponding to each other; generating, by an nth service provider, an nth private key and an nth public key corresponding to each other; transmitting, from the user to the nth service provider, a level n key; verifying, by the nth service provider, the level n key; generating, by the nth service provider, a level (n+1) key by concatenating the level n key and the nth public key signed with the nth private key; and transmitting, by the nth service provider, the level (n+1) key to the user, where n is a natural number, and when n=1, the level 1 key is the first public key signed with the first private key.