Self-Signed Certificate Validation via Publisher Website
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Solution Overview
Problem
Self-signed certificates lack verification by trusted third parties, leading to security issues as customers cannot confirm the authenticity of application publishers, allowing malicious developers to publish malware under legitimate entity names.
Innovation Solution
Systems and methods validate self-signed certificates by identifying the publisher's website, determining if it references the application, and verifying the website's certificate has been signed by a certificate authority, thereby confirming the publisher's trustworthiness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If self-signed certificates are used for application publishing, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a website certificate as an intermediary to verify the publisher's identity. Instead of requiring direct verification of the self-signed certificate, the system uses a website certificate (which can be verified through a trusted certificate authority) as a mediator to establish trust in the publisher, thereby resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and reliability.
2Device complexity
If self-signed certificates are used, then device complexity is reduced, but security worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The website certificate serves as an intermediary verification mechanism that maintains simple self-signed certificate usage while adding a layer of security. The system checks whether the publisher's website certificate is signed by a trusted certificate authority, providing security against malware publication without increasing the complexity of the basic self-signed certificate mechanism.
3Reliability
If website certificate verification is added to validate self-signed certificates, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification by checking if the publisher's website certificate is signed by a trusted certificate authority before fully trusting the self-signed certificate. This preliminary action establishes a baseline of trust that simplifies the overall validation process while maintaining high reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial verification by checking only the critical aspect of the website certificate (whether it is signed by a trusted certificate authority) rather than performing complete and exhaustive verification of all certificate attributes. This partial action provides sufficient reliability improvement without proportionally increasing system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for validating self-signed certificates may include (1) identifying a self-signed certificate associated with an application, (2) identifying a publisher allegedly responsible for publishing the application, (3) identifying a website associated with the publisher allegedly responsible for publishing the application, (4) determining that the website references the application, (5) determining that a website certificate associated with the website has been signed by a certificate authority, and (6) validating the self-signed certificate in response to determining both that the website references the application and that the website certificate associated with the website has been signed by the certificate authority. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.