Reverse Certificate Lookup for Server Identity Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems are vulnerable to hacking and certificate impersonation, as they rely on weak certificate validation mechanisms that can be exploited by malicious actors, making it difficult to verify the authenticity of server certificates and detect compromised key situations.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that implement a reverse certificate lookup and verification process, using a processor and memory modules to acquire and validate server certificates, correlate pre-stored data structures with certificate issuer lookups, and generate codes to detect hacking threats, ensuring a verified connection between a client machine and a server by leveraging an additional verification layer beyond conventional certificate validation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional certificate validation mechanisms are used, then the connection establishment process is simple and fast, but the system is vulnerable to hacking and certificate impersonation
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-storing data structures containing certificate information and expected responses in the client machine before connection establishment. During verification, these pre-stored data structures are compared against actual server responses, enabling detection of certificate impersonation without adding significant complexity to the connection process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary verification mechanism that acts as an additional layer between the client and server. This intermediary process validates certificate authenticity by comparing server responses against pre-stored expected responses, thereby enhancing reliability without requiring complex changes to the underlying PKI infrastructure.
2Reliability
If additional verification layers are added to detect hacking, then the security is improved, but the connection establishment time increases
Solution Approach 1:
By pre-computing and storing expected certificate responses in data structures during system setup, the verification process only requires comparison operations during connection establishment, rather than performing complex validation computations in real-time. This significantly reduces the time penalty of added security verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates copies of expected certificate responses and stores them in pre-stored data structures on the client machine. During verification, these copies are quickly compared against actual server responses, enabling fast hacking detection without requiring repeated complex cryptographic validations.
3Reliability
If certificate chain validation is performed, then the trust verification is enhanced, but the system remains vulnerable to compromised root certificate authorities
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by pre-storing the expected responses from legitimate certificate authorities and their intermediaries. When a connection is established, the actual responses are compared against these pre-stored expectations, thereby detecting compromised CAs before they can successfully impersonate legitimate authorities. This proactive approach counteracts the harm of potential CA compromises.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a system for notifying hacking to a user thereby ensuring verified connection of a client machine with a server intended to be connected is disclosed. The system acquires a server certificate comprising data structure. The data structure may be acquired upon receipt of a response to a request initiated by the client machine. In one aspect, the data structure may be referred to as a tree site to verifier pertaining to the request. The system further receives a validation acknowledgement indicating validity of the server certificate. The system further performs a reverse certificate look up verification process upon receipt of the acknowledgment.