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:
Jun. 07, 2011
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2006
Ananthan Subramanian, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Robert Jan Sussland, San Francisco, CA (US);
Lawrence Wen-hao Chang, San Francisco, CA (US);
Ananthan Subramanian, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Robert Jan Sussland, San Francisco, CA (US);
Lawrence Wen-Hao Chang, San Francisco, CA (US);
NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method securely establishes a shared secret among nodes of a security appliance. The shared secret is established by distributing private keys among the nodes in accordance with a node ring protocol that uses a predetermined encryption algorithm to generate messages containing the keys. Briefly, each node is initially notified as to the number of nodes participating in the shared secret establishment. Each node generates a public-private key-pair, as well as a first message that includes the generated public key and an indication of the source of the generated public key (hereinafter 'source generated public key'). The node then sends the first message to an adjacent node of the appliance. Upon receiving the first message, each node extracts the source generated public key from the message and stores the extracted information into a data structure of 'partner' public keys. The protocol then continues with each node generating additional messages equal to the number of participating nodes minus one. At that point, each node combines its private key with its partner public keys stored in the data structure to generate a value that is common among all of the participating nodes. This common value is then used to derive the shared secret.