Self-Signed Root Certificate for Dynamic Identity Authentication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Devices with changing identities, such as dynamic IP addresses, face burdensome and disruptive processes when establishing secure connections, as they need to repeatedly request new certificates from an external certificate authority, leading to potential overload and disruption of communications.
Innovation Solution
Devices can act as their own certificate authorities by issuing self-signed root certificates and creating derived certificates for short-term identities, allowing peer-to-peer authentication without external involvement, using long-term and short-term public/private key pairs for digital signatures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If devices with changing identities repeatedly request new certificates from external certificate authorities, then secure connections can be established, but the certificate authority becomes overloaded and communication disruptions occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling devices to act as their own certificate authorities. Each device generates and manages its own certificates locally without needing to contact external CAs, thereby eliminating the bottleneck and overload on external certificate authorities while maintaining secure connection capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the centralized certificate authority function into distributed individual devices. Instead of one external CA serving all devices, each device independently performs certificate issuance for itself, dividing the centralized function into multiple autonomous units that operate independently
2Reliability
If devices with changing identities repeatedly request new certificates from external certificate authorities, then secure connections can be established, but communication disruptions and delays occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having devices pre-generate and store their own certificates before needing them for communication. When identity changes occur, devices already have certificates ready or can generate them instantly locally, eliminating the time delay associated with contacting external CAs during identity transitions
Solution Approach 2:
By enabling devices to self-issue certificates without external intervention, the patent eliminates the time loss associated with communication delays to and from external certificate authorities, allowing immediate certificate availability when identities change
3Productivity
If devices act as their own certificate authorities, then external certificate authority overload is reduced, but devices must manage their own identities and authentication processes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling devices to autonomously generate, manage, and validate their own certificates without external assistance. This self-sufficiency reduces external CA workload while the standardized cryptographic operations keep individual device complexity manageable
Data Source
AI summary
A first device with a changing identity establishes a secure connection with a second device in a network by acting as its own certificate authority. The first device issues itself a self-signed root certificate that binds an identity of the first device to a long-term public key of the first device. The root certificate is digitally signed using a long-term private key, where the long-term public key and the long-term private key form a public/private key pair. The first device provides its root certificate to the second device in any trusted manner. The first device can then create a certificate for one or more short-term identities acquired by the first device and sign the newly-created certificate using the long-term private key. The first device can authenticate itself to the second device by sending the newly-created certificate to the second device.