Secure management of authentication information

• US 7,490,242 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2004
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Torres, Elias D., Vincent, Christopher R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zia; Syed A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DOAN, TRANG T
• Application Number:
  US10/774,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20050177731A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,828 Days
• Field of Search: 726/5, 726/8, 726/17, 726/26, 380/281, 380/284, 713182-186, 713/166, 715224-226
• US Class Current: 713/182
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product are provided for managing authentication information for a user. According to the method, a master digital key is received from the user, and authentication of the user is obtained based on the master digital key. There is received from the user a selection of one identity from among a plurality of identities that are stored for the user. Authentication information for the user is provided into an application or web page based on the one identity selected by the user. In one embodiment, the authentication information is provided by recognizing a web page for which authentication information is stored, and automatically filling the authentication information for the user into appropriate elements of the web page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing authentication information for a user, the method comprising the steps of:

encrypting authentication information entered into a web page by the user so as to produce encrypted authentication information, the authentication information including a password and a state of at least one checkbox or radio button;

storing the encrypted authentication information in an ID store on a remote computer;

the ID store being stored in an LDAP directory entry of the user and a database version number being stored as a separate LDAP entry attribute, and the encrypted authentication information being stored in the ID store as encrypted eXtensible Markup Language containing Hypertext Markup Language form values for login Universal Resource Locators;

receiving a login name and a master digital key from the user;

authenticating the user based on the login name and the master digital key;

after the authenticating step, retrieving the encrypted authentication information from the ID store on the remote computer and unencrypting the encrypted authentication information so as to produce the authentication information;

recognizing an authentication information prompt on the web page by matching a form name associated with the authentication information from the ID store with a form name of an HTML form of the web page;

after the authenticating step, receiving from the user a selection of a stored identity of the user from among a plurality of stored identities for the user, at least two of the stored identities storing different authentication information for the user for the web page; and

after the recognizing step, automatically submitting the authentication information for the user to the web page based on the stored identity selected by the user,

wherein the master digital key is a binary key,

the receiving step comprises receiving a biometric signature from the user to unlock the master digital key, and

the automatically submitting step comprises;

retrieving the authentication information based on the stored identity selected by the user;

filling text fields in the web page with the authentication information including filling one of the text fields in the web page with the password;

setting the state of the at least one checkbox or radio button based on the authentication information; and

automatically pressing a login button on the web page.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

after the authenticating step, providing the user with a list of web pages for which authentication information is stored in the ID store;

receiving from the user a selection of the web page from the list of web pages; and

in response to receiving from the user the selection of the web page, automatically opening the web page and then automatically submitting the authentication information for the user to the web page.