Revocation Service for Digital Certificate Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current digital certificate revocation techniques are untimely and may fail to detect revoked certificates, leading to potential exposure of sensitive information to untrusted entities, especially during network failures.
Innovation Solution
A revocation service manages a list of revoked items, including digital certificates, and communicates updates to client devices, allowing for real-time notification of revoked resources, thereby ensuring secure interactions by identifying untrusted entities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current techniques are used to communicate digital certificate revocation information, then the system maintains simplicity in revocation communication, but the revocation detection is delayed and may fail during network failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having client devices proactively query the revocation service at predetermined intervals to obtain revocation information before it is needed. This ensures that revocation status is known in advance, preventing delayed detection and allowing the system to prepare for potential security threats before they materialize.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by establishing a continuous communication loop where client devices query the revocation service, receive updates on revoked certificates, and use this information to adjust their security decisions. The revocation service provides feedback about the current revocation status, enabling client devices to make informed decisions about whether to trust specific digital certificates.
2Speed
If the system implements real-time revocation communication, then security response time is improved, but the complexity of the revocation system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a revocation service as an intermediary component that sits between the certificate authority and client devices. This mediator simplifies the overall system architecture by centralizing revocation information management and providing a standardized interface for clients to query revocation status, thereby reducing the complexity that would otherwise be distributed across multiple components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the revocation information management function from the certificate authority and places it in a separate, dedicated revocation service. This separation of concerns allows the certificate authority to focus on issuing and managing digital certificates while the revocation service handles revocation communication, reducing the complexity of each individual component.
3Loss of energy
If the system uses periodic queries for revocation information, then network bandwidth usage is reduced, but revocation information may be outdated between queries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action by having client devices query the revocation service at predetermined time intervals to obtain updated revocation information. This periodic querying balances network bandwidth consumption with the need for current revocation status, as devices only communicate with the revocation service when necessary to update their local cache of revoked certificates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines periodic action with preliminary action by having client devices query the revocation service in advance of when revocation information would be critically needed. This ensures that the local cache of revocation information is updated proactively during regular intervals, maintaining currency without requiring continuous communication.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for providing revocation information for revocable items are described. In implementations, a revocation service is employed to manage revocation information for various revocable items. For example, the revocation service can maintain a revoked list that includes revoked revocable items, such as revoked digital certificates, revoked files (e.g., files that are considered to the unsafe), unsafe network resources (e.g., a website that is determined to be unsafe), and so on. In implementations, the revocation service can communicate a revoked list to a client device to enable the client device to maintain an updated list of revocation information.