Trusted Intermediary Authentication for Secure Data Transmission
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for secure message transmission are inefficient due to high costs and complexity in managing digital certificates and key exchanges, especially when dealing with a large number of senders or recipients with limited storage capacity, and they do not guarantee confidentiality or authenticity effectively.
Innovation Solution
A method that uses intermediaries to verify sender authenticity without decrypting messages, allowing recipients to use a fixed number of keys and eliminating the need for certificates, employing cryptographic methods for encryption, authentication, and digital signatures, with optional time stamps to prevent replay attacks and ensure message integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If digital certificates and key exchanges are used for secure message transmission, then confidentiality and authenticity are guaranteed, but key management complexity and costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a trusted intermediary (TA - Trusted Authority) that generates key pairs for senders and recipients. The intermediary holds the public keys and can verify messages without senders needing to exchange keys directly with multiple recipients. This mediator approach resolves the key management complexity while maintaining security through the intermediary's trusted verification capability.
2Reliability
If each sender exchanges individual keys with each recipient, then secure communication is achieved, but the number of keys required increases with the number of communication partners
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the trusted intermediary's public key universal for all communication partners. Each recipient stores only the intermediary's public key, which serves as a universal verification key for all senders. This eliminates the need for individual key pairs between each sender-recipient combination, reducing the number of keys from O(n²) to O(n).
3Reliability
If public key methods are used for encryption and authentication, then message integrity is ensured, but communication effort and computing resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial public key cryptography by using it only for authentication (signing) and key distribution, while symmetric encryption could be used for bulk message encryption. The intermediary signs messages partially (authentication only) rather than full encryption, reducing computing overhead while maintaining integrity and authenticity guarantees.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a method for securely transmitting messages to a receiver via an intermediary who does not know the message, the receiver exclusively accepting messages sent via the intermediary and allowing the messages to be answered. All messages are sent to the respective addressee via one or more intermediaries. The sender authenticates himself/herself to the intermediary rather than directly to the receiver. The intermediary authenticates himself/herself to the receiver, thus preventing undesired messages from being output on the receiver. The receiver therefore needs to know only a key of the intermediary but no sender key at all. Since the sender encodes the message for the respective receiver, the intermediary cannot decode said message. The invention dispenses with the need for certificates, without restricting security at all. According to the invention, messages are encoded to ensure confidentiality. In addition, an authentication mechanism protects the addressee from receiving unauthenticated messages.