TLS Certificate Replacement via Client Subscription Notification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Manual intervention by cryptography administrators is time-consuming and costly when replacing TLS server certificates, especially for custom or self-signed certificates, as clients lack the necessary means to verify the new certificates, leading to downtime in secure connections.
Innovation Solution
A notification mechanism where clients subscribe to server TLS certificate changes, using a unique notification endpoint and thumbprint, leveraging OAuth2-based trust relationships and JSON Web Tokens to securely communicate the new certificate, allowing clients to verify the identity of the server and establish secure connections.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual intervention is used to replace TLS server certificates, then certificate replacement can be performed, but it is time-consuming and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by establishing a subscription mechanism before certificate replacement occurs. Clients subscribe to certificate change notifications in advance, and the system prepares notification endpoints and thumbprints beforehand. When certificate replacement happens, the pre-established subscription enables automatic notification and verification without manual intervention, thus reducing downtime and improving replacement efficiency.
2Productivity
If manual intervention is used to replace TLS server certificates, then certificate replacement can be performed, but administrative costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by enabling clients to automatically subscribe to certificate change notifications and verify new certificates without administrator intervention. The notification mechanism with unique endpoints and thumbprints allows the system to autonomously manage certificate replacement, eliminating the need for cryptography administrators to manually configure clients, thereby reducing administrative overhead and costs.
3Extent of automation
If automatic notification mechanism is implemented, then certificate replacement efficiency improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies segmentation by dividing the certificate replacement process into distinct functional components: subscription management, notification endpoint registration, thumbprint verification, and certificate validation. Each component handles a specific aspect of the automation, making the overall complex system manageable through modular organization. This segmentation allows automatic notification while keeping each subsystem's complexity controlled and well-defined.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure is related to devices, systems, and methods for TLS server certificate replacement using a notification mechanism. An example method can include establishing a first secure TLS connection between a client and a server verified by a first TLS certificate, creating a subscription for the client to receive a notification associated with a TLS certificate change, loading a second certificate to replace the first certificate, providing a notification to the client, wherein the notification includes the second certificate and a web token scoped to the client, and establishing a second secure TLS connection verified by the second TLS certificate responsive to the client verifying the web token.