Proxy Server Authentication Without Secret Exposure
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional authentication methods in electronic environments often expose security credentials, making them susceptible to interception and impersonation, as these credentials are typically transmitted with requests, compromising security.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a stateless and secure authorization approach using a browser security module (BSM) that signs requests with secret information without exposing the secret, allowing recipients to verify the signature without needing the shared secret, and using a proxy to limit access and prevent unauthorized use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If security credentials are sent with requests for authentication, then authentication capability is improved, but security is worsened due to exposure of secrets to interception and impersonation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a proxy server as an intermediary between the client and the resource server. The proxy receives requests from clients, signs them with a private key without exposing the key, and forwards them to resource servers. This mediator architecture allows authentication to occur without transmitting the secret credential through unsecured channels, resolving the contradiction between authentication capability and security vulnerability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the signing operation from the client-side code and relocates it to the server-side proxy. By taking out the private key usage from the client environment and placing it in a controlled server environment, the system eliminates the harmful exposure of secrets while maintaining the authentication function that was previously compromised.
2Reliability
If shared secrets are used for authentication, then authentication reliability is improved, but loss of information increases due to potential interception and impersonation
Solution Approach 1:
The proxy server acts as a trusted intermediary that holds the private key and performs signing operations locally. This eliminates the need to transmit shared secrets over the network, preventing information loss through interception while maintaining reliable authentication through the signed request mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs the signing action preliminarily at the proxy server before the request leaves the controlled environment. By preparing the signed request in advance within a secure context, the system ensures that secrets never need to be transmitted, thus preventing information loss while maintaining authentication reliability.
3Ease of operation
If cookies or session tokens are used for authentication, then ease of operation is improved, but security is worsened as secure information is transmitted outside protected environment
Solution Approach 1:
The proxy server serves as a mediator that handles authentication credentials in a controlled environment. Instead of clients storing and transmitting cookies or session tokens that can be intercepted, the proxy internally manages the authentication state and signs requests, eliminating the security risks associated with transmitting secure information outside the protected environment while maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical approach of transmitting cookies and session tokens through network protocols with a cryptographic signing mechanism. The proxy server signs requests using private keys and verifies them on the server side, substituting the vulnerable transmission-based authentication with a secure verification-based approach that eliminates security risks.
Data Source
AI summary
Authenticated requests can be sent without requiring the requests to include or potentially expose secret information used for the authentication process. A client device use a security credential such as a key to sign a request to be sent to a recipient. When the request is received, the recipient determines whether the request was signed using the correct key for the sender. In some embodiments a client token is included with the request that statelessly encodes the key, enabling a recipient capable of decoding the client token to determine the key and compare that key to the signature of the request. The sender can store the secret information in a secure location, such as a browser security module, such that the secret information is not exposed to the browser or script executing on the client device.