Cooperative non-repudiated message exchange in a network environment

• US 7,568,106 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2005
• Issued: 07/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Goodman, Brian D, Jania, Frank L., Kebinger, James K., Shaw, Darren M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand; Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yousefi; Shahrouz
• Application Number:
  US11/303,430
• Publication Number:
  US 20070143619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,320 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 713/180
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/725 operating on a secure reference time value
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data

Abstract

A system and method of performing cooperative non-repudiated message exchange from a first system to a second system in a computer network comprises checking for discrepancies between a current system time in the second system with an actual time; performing a time synchronization process to match the current system time with the actual time; exchanging public encryption keys between the first and second systems; sending a digitally signed message from the first system to the second system; decoding the digitally signed message; sending a digitally signed acknowledgment message from the second system to the first system; decoding the digitally signed acknowledgment message; and committing text of the digitally signed message to an official transcript on the first system.

Claims

1. A method of performing cooperative non-repudiated message exchange from a first system to a second system in a computer network, said method comprising:

checking for discrepancies between a current system time in said second system with an actual time;

performing a time synchronization process to match said current system time with said actual time;

exchanging public encryption keys between the first and second systems;

sending a digitally signed message from said first system to said second system;

decoding said digitally signed message;

sending a digitally signed acknowledgment message from said second system to said first system;

decoding said digitally signed acknowledgment message;

committing text of said digitally signed message to an official transcript on said first system;

transmitting a reconciliation message between said first and second systems;

decoding said reconciliation message, wherein said reconciliation message comprises a payload comprising a transcript;

determining an accuracy of said transcript by creating transcript deltas between identified text in said transcript and actual text in said transcript;

sending a digitally signed reconciliation response message;

decoding said digitally signed reconciliation response message;

reviewing said transcript;

determining whether to accept said transcript,

wherein said time synchronization process comprises;

verifying, by said second system, said current system time of said second system;

determining whether an official time check of said second system is required;

connecting to a list of known timeservers to resynchronize said current system time of said second system;

validating said current system time of said second system with said timeservers;

determining whether said current system time matches a pre-specified threshold; and

determining whether to accept said current system time as said actual time,

wherein the decoding of said digitally signed message comprises;

verifying a digital signature of said digitally signed message; and

verifying a digital integrity of said digitally signed message,

wherein the decoding of said digitally signed acknowledgment message comprises;

verifying a digital signature of said digitally signed acknowledgment message;

verifying a digital integrity of said digitally signed acknowledgment message;

identifying a message identifier and a digital signature in said digitally signed acknowledgment message; and

verifying that said digital signature matches a digital signature generated for said message identifier, and

wherein the decoding of said reconciliation message comprises;

verifying a digital signature of said reconciliation message; and

verifying an integrity of said reconciliation message.