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. 20, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 08, 1998
Kazu Yanagihara, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Gregory Burns, Los Altos, CA (US);
Gregory Vaughan, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Apple Computer, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
Authentication of a request by a computer for access to a resource is accomplished by means of a randomly generated password that can only be used a limited number of times. In a disclosed embodiment of the invention, a network computer sends a boot request to a network server. In response, the network server generates a random password, and sets a use counter to a value which indicates the number of times that the password can be used for access to network resources. This password is transmitted to the network computer, which uses it to initiate a session with a network file server, and access network resources. The network server then invalidates the password, by decrementing the use counter to zero. As a result, even if the password becomes known to an unauthorized user as it is being transmitted from the network server to the network computer, it cannot be improperly employed to gain access to any network resources.