International Business Machines Corporation

Hatem Ghafir

Robert B Carroll

Mark Fisk

Dieter Poetzschke

Hiroshi Maruyama

Hamid Bacha

Khalid A Asad

Robert Burns

Lolo Lasida

Larry An

Roger Reider

Paresh Patel

Ku Lee

Robert Briggs

Drew Kittel

Srinivasa Kasturi

Raymond Good

Hirosi Maruyama

Amit Pamecha

Techniques for use in establishing a secure exchange of information between an end user and a server in a distributed network environment are provided in accordance with a context manager. The context manager is manageable within a vault process and maintains state information between successive user browser sessions with multiple application domains containing various applications. The context manager accesses data stored on a global level that spans applications and is available to multiple vault applications in different domains. The context manager also accesses data stored on an application level and common to a given application domain for a given sequence of operations within the vault application. The context manager accesses data stored on an instance level for a given sequence of operations within a given application domain. Finally, the context manager opens the global level data, application level data, and instance level data for non-null values where a scoping level is not identified when performing a retrieval operation.

Vault controller context manager and methods of operation for securely maintaining state information between successive browser connections in an electronic business system

A secure-end-to-end communication system for electronic business system and method of operation, e.g., the Internet, includes a web server&mdash;vault controller having personal storage vaults in the controller for users, registration and certification authorities. Each personal vault runs programs on the controller under a unique UNIX user ID. Data storage is provided by the controller wherein the storage is owned by the same user ID assigned to the vault. A registration authority running as a software application in the controller processes requests to issue, renew and revoke digital certificates issued by a certification authority using two pairs of public-private keys. The registration authority interacts with the vault controller to decide whether an applicant qualifies to receive a digital certificate. The certification authority running as software application in the controller includes a certificate management system that provides services such as issuing, revoking, suspending, resuming, and renewing a user's right to digital certificates.

Secure server using public key registration and methods of operation

A vault controller in an electronic business system includes a dispatcher for servicing browser requests initiated by a user for conducting business with an enterprise or organization using a vault process. The dispatcher further responds to a secure depositor receiving requests from other vault processes running in the controller. The request is in the form a URL containing an application domain/local context and application name. The request is detected and processed by event creator which forms an event object definitive of the request in the URL. An event handler parses the event object and enters a vault system application registry to locate the application in a shared memory. The location of the application is passed to a server pool, which assign a processing thread to handle the request. The thread engages a context manager which decrypts and imports application domain, application function and local context information from external storage to process the request. The application is located in the shared memory and the request implemented. The context manager encrypts and exports the processed information to external storage and provides a return code in the response to the user. The return code is used to locate the context information in a subsequent request by the user. The requests received from other vault processes through the secure depositor are handled in like manner to the user request. After execution of a user request, the vault process loops for some defined time during which other requests are received from the user. The absence of requests causes the vault process to shut down and store the variables for the next user request which retraces the steps of the original request.

Vault controller dispatcher and methods of operation for handling interaction between browser sessions and vault processes in electronic business systems

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Montgomery County, MD, United States of America

Hatem Ghafir