Web Component Authentication via Intermediary Server
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing technologies face challenges in securely authenticating data requests to APIs, particularly when login credentials need to be protected from unauthorized access.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves a token-based authentication system where a trusted customer (first server entity) obtains an API key from a data storing entity (second server entity) and uses it to authenticate token requests on behalf of browser applications, eliminating the need for each application to directly access the API key.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the web component includes a data fetch request to eliminate output from the web page, then the request can be embedded within the web component, but the login credentials cannot be included due to security risks of exposure to unauthorized actors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server entity as an intermediary between the web component and the data source. The web component sends requests to the server entity, which then communicates with the data source using stored login credentials. This mediator approach allows the web component to fetch data without directly exposing credentials, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the login credentials from the web component and stores them securely on the server entity. By separating the credentials from the client-side code, the system eliminates the security risk of credential exposure while maintaining the functionality of automated data fetching. The web component only needs to send request parameters, not authentication information.
2Reliability
If the data storing entity directly authenticates each application's token requests, then security is maintained, but the complexity and burden on the data-storing server entity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a trusted customer server entity as an intermediary that handles authentication with the data storing entity. This server obtains login credentials and uses them to authenticate token requests on behalf of multiple applications. The data storing entity only needs to trust this single intermediary rather than managing authentication for numerous individual applications, reducing complexity while maintaining security through the intermediary's established credentials.
Solution Approach 2:
The trusted customer server entity serves multiple functions: it acts as an authentication intermediary for multiple applications, manages token requests, and maintains the relationship with the data storing entity. This universal approach allows one server to handle authentication for many applications, reducing the overall system complexity compared to each application having separate authentication mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, and systems for authentication via web components. One of the methods includes: submitting a token request, by a browser application, to a first server entity for a token from an API hosted by a second server entity; receiving, at the browser application, the token and a time to live (TTL) for the token from the first server entity, the first server entity having added an API key to the token request to produce an appended token request and forwarded the appended token request to the API at the second server entity, the API at the second server entity having authenticated the API key and returned the token and the TTL to the first server entity, and the first server entity having returned the token and the TTL to the browser application; and sending, by the browser application to the second server entity, a data request with the token.