Method for discovering digital certificates in a network

• US 20050076200A1
• Filed: 08/13/2004
• Published: 04/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Imcentric Incorporated, Venafi,Inc.
• Original Assignee: Imcentric Incorporated
• Inventors: Thornton, Russell S., Seegmiller, Jayson, Hodson, Benjamin, Weight, Richard
• Application Number:
  US10/917,961
• Publication Number:
  US 20050076200A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/156
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/34 Encoding or coding, e.g. Huffman coding or error correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/76 Proxy, i.e. using intermediary entity to perform cryptographic operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/04 for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3226 using a predetermined code, e.g. password, passphrase or PIN network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using passwords in a packet data network H04L63/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response

Abstract

Disclosed herein are several digital certificate discovery and management systems. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for discovering digital certificates to servers on a network, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving an address range corresponding to a network or network portion to be scanned,

contacting network devices within the received address range, said contacting further intended to initiate the transmission of a digital certificate from each of the contacted network devices to said certificate discovery system,

for each contacted network device transmitting a digital certificate, receiving the digital certificate,

for each received digital certificate, creating a certificate record containing a certificate identification, wherein the certificate identification contains sufficient information to identify the received digital certificate and the network device from where it was transmitted, and

storing created certificate records.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said contacting includes probing IP port 443 using a secure sockets layer protocol.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said contacting includes probing IP port 80.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said contacting includes searching for certificates on network mountable filesystems.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said contacting includes executing a search command for certificates in a shell interface.

6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of parsing found certificates for dates of validity.

7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of parsing found certificates for issuing certificate authorities.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein said storing stores certificate records to a database.

9. A method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of merging created certificate records with a database produced from earlier discovery activity.

10. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of identifying the type of servers located to the network devices.

11. A method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of storing server types to a database.

12. A method for discovering digital certificates to servers on a network, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving an address range corresponding to a network or network portion to be scanned,

contacting network devices within the received address range, said contacting further intended to initiate the transmission of a digital certificate from each of the contacted network devices to said certificate discovery system, said contacting including probing of IP port 443 using a secure sockets layer protocol,

for network devices having servers installed thereto, attempting to identify the type of server for each,

for each contacted network device transmitting a digital certificate, receiving the digital certificate,

for each received digital certificate, parsing the certificates to retrieve beginning and ending dates of validity,

for each received digital certificate, creating a certificate record containing a certificate identification, wherein the certificate identification contains sufficient information to identify the received digital certificate and the network device from where it was transmitted, and

storing created certificate records to a database.

13. A method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of parsing found certificates for issuing certificate authorities.

14. A method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of merging created certificate records with a database produced from earlier discovery activity.

15. A method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of storing server types to a database.

16. A method for discovering digital certificates to servers on a network, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving an address range corresponding to a network or network portion to be scanned,

contacting network devices within the received address range, said contacting further intended to initiate the transmission of a digital certificate from each of the contacted network devices to said certificate discovery system, said contacting including attempting to access the filesystems of the network devices to search for certificates installed thereto,

for network devices having servers installed thereto, attempting to identify the type of server for each,

for each contacted network device transmitting a digital certificate, receiving the digital certificate,

for each received digital certificate, parsing the certificates to retrieve beginning and ending dates of validity,

for each received digital certificate, creating a certificate record containing a certificate identification, wherein the certificate identification contains sufficient information to identify the received digital certificate and the network device from where it was transmitted, and

storing created certificate records to a database.