Electronic mail system with authentication methodology for supporting relaying in a message transfer agent
DCFirst Claim
1. In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a method for determining whether to approve relaying of e-mail received from a roaming user, the method comprising:
- attempting to authenticate the user for purposes of relaying an e-mail, through use of a certificate;
if the user cannot be authenticated, immediately terminating the method without approval of relaying;
determining a certificate issuer for the now-authenticated user;
if the certificate issuer is unknown to the system, immediately terminating the method without approval of relaying;
determining whether relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate issuer;
if relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate issuer, immediately terminating the method with approval of relaying;
determining whether relaying is allowed based on identity of the user as a certificate subject; and
if relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate subject, terminating the method with approval of relaying, otherwise terminating the method without approval of relaying.
10 Assignments
Litigations
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic mail (“e-mail”) system is described that provides a methodology that allows the system to determine when it is appropriate to relay e-mail messages, particularly from “roaming” users. In basic operation, the methodology of the present invention first checks whether the client has been authenticated. If not, the decision of whether relaying is allowed may be subject to other rules in the system, such as whether the user currently resides behind the company'"'"'s firewall. Of interest herein is a case where the client has been authenticated. In that case, the system can allow relaying for everyone who has a certificate (“cert”) signed by certain certificate authorities (“CAs”). Additionally, the system can require specific cert subjects.
-
Citations
15 Claims
-
1. In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a method for determining whether to approve relaying of e-mail received from a roaming user, the method comprising:
-
attempting to authenticate the user for purposes of relaying an e-mail, through use of a certificate;
if the user cannot be authenticated, immediately terminating the method without approval of relaying;
determining a certificate issuer for the now-authenticated user;
if the certificate issuer is unknown to the system, immediately terminating the method without approval of relaying;
determining whether relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate issuer;
if relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate issuer, immediately terminating the method with approval of relaying;
determining whether relaying is allowed based on identity of the user as a certificate subject; and
if relaying is allowed based on identity of the certificate subject, terminating the method with approval of relaying, otherwise terminating the method without approval of relaying. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
Specification