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:
Jul. 06, 2010
Filed:
Dec. 21, 2005
Marcus Leech, Smith Falls, CA;
Marcus Leech, Smith Falls, CA;
Abstract
A system and method is provided for hiding an initiator's identity (ID), e.g. a ClientID, in a shared key authentication protocol, using authentication based on a hint of the ID. The hint is a function of the ID which cannot be readily inverted to produce the initiator's identity, for example, a hash function over the ID, such as a modular N sum hash of the initiator's identity where N corresponds to N hash buckets in a shared key database; a cryptographic hash over the ID and a corresponding shared key; or a function of the ID which cannot be readily inverted to produce the initiator's identity and a pair of MAC values wherein the MAC values are compared to find a shared key. The resulting hash may be reduced to a required number of bits for identification of a hash bucket in the database. The system and method thereby provide a computationally efficient method of protecting, or hiding, a client ID in a client-server system for shared-key authentication, which avoids the requirement of known systems to send the client ID in clear text early in the message exchange, which leaves known shared-key protocols open to passive and active identity disclosure attacks.