Apparatus and method for multi-threaded password management

• US 7,275,258 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2001
• Issued: 09/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shieh, Johnny Meng-Han, Murillo, Jessica Kelley, Martinez, Rene Ruben, McNichol, Daniel Paul, Arbab, Reza
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dinh; Minh
• Application Number:
  US09/909,251
• Publication Number:
  US 20030018919A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,259 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/2, 726 6- 8, 726 17- 19, 726/21
• US Class Current: 726/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations

Abstract

An apparatus and method for multi-threaded password management are provided. With the apparatus and method, resources may be grouped into families of resources. A family of resources is defined as a group of resources that may make use of the same password. When a user sets a new password for a family of resources, all of the passwords for each of the resources in the family are reset to this new password. That is, the multi-threaded password management apparatus and method spawns threads to reset the passwords of the other resources in the family. In this way, a single operation of resetting a password for a resource in the family may cause a plurality of passwords to be reset. Moreover, the passwords need only be reset when the earliest reset time of the resources in the family occurs. Thus, the number of passwords that must be memorized by a user is significantly reduced. Furthermore, the number of times that passwords need be reset is also reduced due to the resetting of passwords on a group level.

Claims

1. A method of managing resource passwords for resources organized into a plurality of groups of resources, comprising:

providing a user with a listing of resources to which the user is given access, wherein providing the user with a listing of resources includes providing the user with a display that indicates which of the resources may be grouped together based upon non-password security parameters associated with the resources;

receiving selections from the user for grouping various ones of the resources into groups of resources;

storing the plurality of groups of resources in a user password profile;

identifying a plurality of resources that are part of a group of resources by retrieving the user password profile in which the plurality of groups of resources are identified along with corresponding group password information for each of the plurality of groups of resources;

updating a first password for a first resource in the group of resources; and

updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources based on the updating of the first password for the first resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first password and the second password are the same.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources includes updating passwords for each of the resources in the group of resources to be the same as the first password.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the first password for the first resource and updating the second password for the second resource are both performed in response to determining that the first password is about to expire.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one process spawns threads to update the first password and second password in response to updating the group password information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user with a listing of resources includes providing the user with a display that indicates which of the resources are already grouped with one another.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a password in association with each of the groups of resources, wherein the password is used with each of the resources in a corresponding group of resources.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources includes updating only selected ones of the resources in the group of resources.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources iccludes:

prompting a user to change a password for one or more of the resources in the group of resources; and

changing the password for the one or more resources selected by the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more resources selected by the user includes all of the resources in the group of resources.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the group of resources is a group of resources each of which use the same password to authenticate a user'"'"'s access to the resource

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user password profile is stored on a server.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the user password profile is stored on a client device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the user password profile is distributed across the resources.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the second password is performed automatically.

16. A computer program embodied in a computer storage medium and operable in a data processing system for managing resource passwords for resources organized into a plurality of groups of resources, comprising:

first instructions executable by the data processing system for providing a user with a listing of resources to which the user is given access, wherein providing the user with a listing of resources includes providing the user with a display that indicates which of the resources may be grouped together based upon non-password security parameters associated with the resources;

second instructions executable by the data processing system for receiving selections from the user for grouping various ones of the resources into groups of resources;

third instructions executable by the data processing system for storing the plurality of groups of resources in a user password profile;

fourth instructions executable by the data processing system for identifying a plurality of resources that are part of a group of resources by retrieving the user password profile in which the plurality of groups of resources are identified along with corresponding group password information for each of the plurality of groups of resources;

fifth instructions executable by the data processing system for updating a first password for a first resource in the group of resources; and

sixth instructions executable by the data processing system for updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources based on the updating of the first password for the first resource.

17. The computer program of claim 16, wherein the first password and the second password are the same.

18. The computer program of claim 16, wherein the sixth instructions for updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources include instructions for updating passwords for each of the resources in the group of resources to be the same as the first password.

19. The computer program of claim 16, wherein the fifth instructions for updating the first password for the first resource and the sixth instructions for updating the second password for the second resource are both executed in response to determining that the first password is about to expire.

20. The computer program of claim 16, wherein at least one process spawns threads to update the first password and second password in response to updating the group password information.

21. The computer program of claim 16, wherein the instructions for providing the user with a listing of resources include instructions for providing the user with a display that indicates which of the resources are already grouped with one another.

22. The computer program of claim 16, further comprising:

instructions for storing a password in association with each of the groups of resources, wherein the password is used with each of the resources in a corresponding group of resources.

23. The computer program of claim 16, wherein the sixth instructions for updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources include instructions for updating only selected ones of the resources in the group of resources.

24. The computer program of claim 16, wherein the sixth instructions for updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources include:

instructions for prompting a user to change a password for one or more of the resources in the group of resources; and

instructions for changing the password for the one or more resources selected by the user.

25. The computer program of claim 23, wherein the one or more resources selected by the user includes all of the resources in the group of resources.

26. An apparatus for managing resource passwords, comprising:

means for providing a user with a listing of resources to which the user is given access, wherein providing the user with a listing of resources includes providing the user with a display that indicates which of the resources may be grouped together based upon non-password security parameters associated with the resources;

means for receiving selections from the user for grouping various ones of the resources into groups of resources;

means for storing the plurality of groups of resources in a user password profile;

means for identifying a plurality of resources that are part of a group of resources by retrieving the user password profile in which the plurality of groups of resources are identified along with corresponding group password information for each of the plurality of groups of resources;

means for updating a first password for a first resource in the group of resources; and

means for updating a second password for a second resource in the group of resources based on the updating of the first password for the first resource.