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:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1998
David Carroll Challener, Raleigh, NC (US);
Barry Douglas Atkins, Raleigh, NC (US);
Todd W. Arnold, Charlotte, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided for facilitating the generation and use of computer system configuration passwords which can be utilized in an enterprise or organization to allow authorized users having knowledge of the password associated with a particular data processing system to make and change configuration decisions, but which prevents unauthorized users from making and changing such configuration decisions. In the preferred embodiment, a unique identifier (such as a serial number) and an enterprise secret key are supplied to a one-way cryptographic hash function in order to generate the configuration passwords which are unique to each data processing system of the plurality of data processing system of the enterprise or organization.