Session Security via Secret String Hashing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing communication session security methods, such as full-message encryption, are resource-intensive and wasteful for publicly viewable messages, as they prevent observation while ensuring integrity, which is not necessary for all types of data transmission.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a secret string generated by the client, encrypted with the server's public key and decrypted for authentication, allowing non-encrypted message transmission with integrity verification using hash values to ensure message authenticity without the need for full-message encryption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If full-message encryption is used to ensure message integrity, then message authenticity is improved, but resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the message into two parts: a publicly viewable portion that does not require encryption, and a critical portion (or hash) that is encrypted or hashed for integrity verification. This allows the system to apply security measures only where necessary, reducing overall computational cost while maintaining message authenticity for critical data.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the message are treated differently regarding security. Critical fields are encrypted or hashed with higher security measures, while non-critical fields use lighter protection or none at all. This local differentiation of security quality reduces resource consumption on messages where full encryption is unnecessary.
2Reliability
If HTTPS handshake protocol is used for each message transmission, then message security is improved, but connection establishment time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs security setup (key exchange, encryption configuration) in advance during an initial handshake phase, rather than repeating it for every message. Subsequent messages within the same session can be transmitted with reduced security overhead, significantly reducing connection establishment time for each message while maintaining security through the pre-established secure channel.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent establishes a persistent secure connection that remains active across multiple message transmissions. Instead of repeatedly establishing and tearing down HTTPS connections, the secure channel is maintained continuously, allowing multiple messages to be sent over the same encrypted connection without repeating the full handshake protocol.
Data Source
AI summary
A secret string is established so as to be known only to a client computing system and a server computing system. A non-encrypted version of a message, a message counter value, and first hash value are received by the server computing system from the client computing system. The first hash value, based on a content of the message, the message counter value, and the secret string, is generated at the client computing system using a first hash algorithm. Using the first hash algorithm, the server generates second hash value based on the content of the received message, the received message counter value, and the secret string. The server computing system accepts the received non-encrypted version of the message as authentic upon determining that the received message counter value is greater than a previously received message counter value and that the second hash value matches the first hash value.