Techniques for securing electronic identities

• US 7,770,204 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2003
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Griffis, Jerry E, Pathakis, Scott William, Carter, Stephen R, Davis, Howard Rollin, Nielson, Dustin Lance, Cook, Michael William, Johnson, David Nephi, Beus, David Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): Homayounmehr; Farid
• Application Number:
  US10/676,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20050071687A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,499 Days
• Field of Search: 726/2
• US Class Current: 726/2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0407 wherein the identity of one or more communicating identities is hidden cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for anonymous credentials or for identity based cryptographic systems H04L9/00

Abstract

Methods, systems, and data stores generate and manage temporarily assigned identities. A requestor issues a request for a service. The request includes an identity used for authenticating the requestor. The identity is used for generating an identity configuration and for generating a temporarily assigned identity that is updated to a protected identity directory. The request and the temporarily assigned identity are transmitted to the service. The service uses the temporarily assigned identity to access the protected identity directory for purposes of authenticating the request. The service uses the authenticated request to access attributes associated with the temporarily assigned identity.

Claims

1. A method for generating temporarily assigned identity information implemented in a computer-readable medium and executed on a proxy service to perform the method, comprising:

authenticating, by a proxy server, identity information associated with a request received from a requestor for accessing a service, the request is sent from the requestor to the service and intercepted for processing;

generating, by a proxy server, temporarily assigned identity information for the requestor, the temporarily assigned identity information is in a syntax and format recognized by the service,

and the temporary assigned identity information is unique to each of the requests and expires when the requestor terminates communication sessions associated with the services, and the temporarily assigned identity information includes a combination of, a password, a certificate, a token, a biometric value, a hardware value, a network connection value, and a time value, and the temporarily assigned identity information is used to impersonate the requestors,

and the original identity information consists of a first subset, which reflects only those portions of the original identity information needed by the services to process the requests, and a second subset, which reflects all the information in the original identity information excluding the first subset,

and the temporary assigned identity information includes the first subset of original identity information for the requestors, and excludes the second subset,

updating, by a proxy server, a protected identity directory with the temporarily assigned identity information; and

directly transmitting, by a proxy server, the request and the temporarily assigned identity information to the service on behalf of the requestor, the service accesses the protected identity directory with the temporarily assigned identity information to authenticate the requestor for access,

and the temporarily assigned identity information is monitored and removed from the protected identity directory and the local identity mapping store when terminating events are detected, and the proxy server detects and denies multiple login events that use the temporary assigned identity information.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating, by a proxy server, a mapping between the identity information and the temporarily assigned identity information; and

storing, by a proxy server, the mapping in a local identity mapping store.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising, synchronizing, by a proxy server, the local identity mapping store and the mapping with one or more addition local identity mapping stores.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the generating further includes assembling an aggregate identity configuration for the requestor from one or more authoritative identity stores before generating the temporarily assigned identity information.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, removing, by a proxy server, the temporarily assigned identity information from the protected identity directory after detecting a terminating event that terminates the authenticity of the temporarily assigned identity information.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising recycling, by a proxy server, a storage space occupied by the temporarily assigned identity information for use in a subsequent iteration of the method.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting, by a proxy server, dynamic changes made on at least a portion of the identity information, wherein the changes are detected within the protected identity directory; and

synchronizing, by a proxy server, the temporarily assigned identity information with the changes.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting, by a proxy server, dynamic changes made on at least a portion of the identity information, wherein the changes are detected within the protected identity directory; and

synchronizing, by a proxy server, the changes with one or more authoritative identity stores impacted by the changes.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting, by a proxy server, changes made on at least a portion of the identity information, wherein the changes are detected within the protected identity directory; and

logging, by a proxy server, the changes for subsequent update with one or more authoritative identity stores impacted by the changes.

10. A method for generating temporarily assigned identity information implemented in a computer-readable medium and executed on a proxy service to perform the method, comprising:

acquiring, by a proxy server, a request for a service from a requestor that makes the request directly to the service;

authenticating, by a proxy server, the request;

compiling, by a proxy server, an identity configuration for the request;

generating, by a proxy server, temporarily assigned identity information for the request using the identity configuration, and wherein the temporarily assigned identity information impersonates a requestor, and the temporary assigned identity information is unique to each of the requests and expires when the requestor terminates communication sessions associated with the services, and the temporarily assigned identity information includes a combination of, a password, a certificate, a token, a biometric value, a hardware value, a network connection value, and a time value,

and the original identity information consists of a first subset, which reflects only those portions of the original identity information needed by the services to process the requests, and a second subset, which reflects all the information in the original identity information excluding the first subset,

and the temporary assigned identity information includes the first subset of original identity information for the requestors, and excludes the second subset,

updating, by a proxy server, a protected identity directory with the temporarily assigned identity information; and

directly transmitting, by a proxy server, the temporarily assigned identity information and the request to the service on behalf of the requestor, wherein a mapping between the identity configuration and the temporary assigned identity information is removed from cache when the request expires,

and the proxy server detects and denies multiple login events that use the temporary assigned identity information.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein acquiring further includes, transmitting the request, wherein the request originates from a requestor'"'"'s service over an insecure network.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the transmitting further includes, transmitting the temporarily assigned identity information and the request to the service within a secure network.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising accessing, by the service on the proxy server, a protected identity directory to authenticate the request using the temporarily assigned identity information.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

acquiring, by a proxy server, an additional request issued from a same-requestor that is associated with the request, wherein the additional request is for an additional service;

authenticating, by a proxy server, the additional request; and

transmitting, by a proxy server, the temporarily assigned identity information and the additional request to the additional service.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising, forcing, by a proxy server, the temporarily assigned identity information to expire upon detection of a terminating event.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the compiling further includes aggregating identity policies from one or more authoritative identity stores, wherein the identity policies are associated with the requestor that issued the request for the service.

17. An identity information management system, comprising:

a proxy server that intercepts requests made for services, the requests are associated with requestors, and the requests are made from the requestors directly to the services and are processed by the proxy server;

a local identity mapping store for housing mappings between temporarily assigned identity information and identity configurations, the temporarily assigned identity information and the identity configurations are generated from identity information provided with the requests; and

a protected identity directory updated with the temporarily assigned identity information and accessed by the services in order to authenticate the requests, the requests and the temporarily assigned identity information are directly transmitted to the services on behalf of the requestors by the proxy server and the temporarily assigned identity information is in a syntax and semantic format recognized by the services for authenticating access to the services, and the temporary assigned identity information is unique to each of the requests and expires when the requestor terminates communication sessions associated with the services, and the temporarily assigned identity information includes a combination of, a password, a certificate, a token, a biometric value, a hardware value, a network connection value, and a time value, and the temporarily assigned identity information is used to impersonate the requestors,

and the original identity information consists of a first subset, which reflects only those portions of the original identity information needed by the services to process the requests, and a second subset, which reflects all the information in the original identity information excluding the first subset,

and the temporary assigned identity information includes the first subset of original identity information for the requestors, and excludes the second subset, the temporarily assigned identity information is monitored and removed from the protected identity directory and the local identity mapping store when terminating events are detected, and the proxy server detects and denies multiple login events that use the temporary assigned identity information.

18. The identity information management system of claim 17 further comprising a local identity mapping store synchronizer that synchronizes the mappings in the local identity mapping store with one or more additional local identity mapping stores.

19. The identity information management system of claim 17 wherein the local identity mapping store, the protected identity mapping store, and the services are accessible from a secure network.

20. The identity information management system of claim 17 wherein the identity configurations are generated from one or more authoritative data stores associated with the requestors.

21. The identity information management system of claim 17, wherein the temporarily assigned identity information is randomly or deterministically generated.

22. The identity information management system of claim 17, a storage space associated with the temporarily assigned identity information is recycled or reused.