Change-tolerant method of generating an identifier for a collection of assets in a computing environment

Abstract

A change-tolerant method of generating a fingerprint of a computing environment based on asset parameters associated components of the computing environment. Asset parameters are grouped into multiple subsets based on characteristics of the components. A share is generated for each asset parameter of the category to produce a plurality of shares. A secret sharing algorithm is applied to the subsets to generate a plurality of candidate identifiers corresponding to the plurality of subsets of shares. A candidate identifier is selected from the plurality of candidate identifiers as a final identifier for each category based at least in part on a frequency of occurrence of that candidate identifier. The final identifiers are combined into a fingerprint corresponding to the computing environment, wherein the fingerprint is provides verification of the plurality of components without requiring individual verification of any shares in the plurality of shares.