The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 08, 1990
Filed:
Aug. 24, 1989
Stephen M Matyas, Manassas, VA (US);
Dennis G Abraham, Concord, NC (US);
Donald B Johnson, Manassas, VA (US);
Ramesh K Karne, Herndon, VA (US);
An V Le, Arlington, VA (US);
Rostislaw Prymak, Dumfries, VA (US);
Julian Thomas, Lagrange, NY (US);
John D Wilkins, Somnerville, VA (US);
Phil C Yeh, Poughkeepsie, NY (US);
Ronald M Smith, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Cryptographic PIN processing is achieved in an improved manner by associating control vectors with the PIN generating (verification) keys and PIN encrypting keys which provide authorization for the uses of the keys intended by the originator of the keys. The originator may be the local cryptographic facility (CF) and a utility program under the control of a security administrator, or the originator may be another network node which uses the key management methods described in the above-referenced copending patent applications to distribute said keys. Among the uses specified by the control vector are limitations on the authority to use the associated key with certain PIN processing instructions, such as PIN generation, verification, translation and PIN block creation. Furthermore, the control vector may limit the authority of certain instructions to process clear PIN inputs (such as in PIN verification). The control vector may contain information identifying and, possibly restricting, PIN processing to a particular PIN format or particular processing algorithm. The control vector implementation provides a flexible method for coupling format, usage, and processing authorization to keys. The system administrator can exercise flexibility in changing the implementation of his security policy by selecting appropriate control vectors in accordance with the invention. Furthermore, a method is provided for the security administrator to restrict certain PIN format translations.