Trusted network connect method based on tri-element peer authentication

• US 8,255,977 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: China Iwncomm Co., Ltd
• Original Assignee: China Iwncomm Co., Ltd
• Inventors: Xiao, Yuelei, Cao, Jun, Lai, Xiaolong, Huang, Zhenhai
• Primary Examiner(s): Arani, Taghi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mehedi, Morshed
• Application Number:
  US12/626,546
• Publication Number:
  US 20100077454A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,007 Days
• Field of Search: 713/168, 713/169, 726/3
• US Class Current: 726/3
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0869 for achieving mutual authentication cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for mutual authentication H04L9/3273
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3234 involving additional secure or trusted devices, e.g. TPM, smartcard, USB or software token network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using an additional device in a packet data network H04L63/0853
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

A trusted network connect (TNC) method based on tri-element peer authentication is provided, which includes the following steps. Platform integrity information is prepared in advance. An integrity verification requirement is predefined. A network access requestor initiates an access request to a network access controller. The network access controller starts a mutual user authentication process, and performs a tri-element peer authentication protocol with a user authentication serving unit. After the mutual user authentication is successful, a TNC client, a TNC server, and a platform evaluation serving unit implement platform integrity evaluation by using a tri-element peer authentication method. The network access requestor and the network access controller control ports according to recommendations received respectively, so as to implement mutual access control between the access requestor and the access controller. Thus, the technical problems in the prior art of poor extensibility, complex key agreement process, low security, and that platform integrity evaluation is not peer-to-peer are solved by the present invention. Through the method of the present invention, key management and integrity verification mechanisms of the TNC are simplified, and the range of applicability of the TNC is expanded.

Claims

1. A trusted network connect (TNC) method based on tri-element peer authentication, comprising:

(1.) performing an initialization step;

(1.1) preparing, by a TNC client of an access requestor and a TNC server of an access controller, platform integrity information in advance, and transmitting the platform integrity information to integrity measurement collectors (IMC) in their respective integrity measurement layers;

(1.2) predefining, by the TNC client and the TNC server, an integrity verification requirement, wherein the integrity verification requirement comprises platform configuration registers (PCRs) lists that the access requestor and the access controller request each other to verify; and

(1.3) hashing, by trusted platform modules (TPMs) of the access requestor and the access controller, information required by a network policy, and then storing the hashed information into the PCRs lists;

(2.) performing a user authentication step;

(2.1) initiating, by a network access requestor, an access request to a network access controller;

(2.2) starting, by the network access controller, a mutual user authentication process after receiving the access request, and starting, by the network access requestor, the network access controller, and a user authentication serving unit in a network access layer, to perform a tri-element peer authentication protocol, so as to implement mutual user authentication and key agreement between the access requestor and the access controller; and

(2.3) when the mutual user authentication is successful, respectively transmitting, by the network access requestor and the network access controller, information indicating that the user authentication is successful to the TNC client and the TNC server, and controlling ports of the network access requestor and the network access controller according to a result of the user authentication;

(3.) performing an integrity evaluation step;

when the TNC server of the access controller receives the information indicating that the user authentication is successful sent from the network access controller, implementing, by the TNC client, the TNC server, and a platform evaluation serving unit in an integrity evaluation layer, platform integrity evaluation of the access requestor and the access controller by using a tri-element peer authentication method; and

(4.) performing an access control step;

respectively summarizing, by the TNC server and the TNC client, platform integrity evaluation results of the access controller and the access requestor, and respectively sending a recommendation to the network access requestor and the network access controller; and

respectively controlling, by the network access requestor and the network access controller, ports according to the respective received recommendations, so as to implement mutual access control between the access requestor and the access controller.

2. The TNC method according to claim 1, wherein the implementing the platform integrity evaluation comprises:

verifying, by a policy manager, validity of attestation identity key (AIK) certificates and platform integrity of the access requestor and the access controller.

3. The TNC method according to claim 1, wherein the implementing, by the TNC client, the TNC server, and the platform evaluation serving unit in the integrity evaluation layer, the platform integrity evaluation of the access requestor and the access controller by using the tri-element peer authentication method comprises:

(3.1) when the TNC server of the access controller receives the information indicating that the user authentication is successful sent from the network access controller or has acknowledged that the user authentication is successful, sending, by the TNC server of the access controller, a random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller, an AIK certificate Cert_AC-AIK of the access controller, and a PCRs list PCRsList_AR requested by the access controller from the access requestor to the access requestor;

(3.2) after receiving the information sent from the access controller in Step (3.1), firstly, extracting, by the access requestor, a corresponding PCRs value from the TPM according to the PCRs list requested by the access controller;

then, generating, by the access requestor, a signature in the TPM by using an AIK private key for the corresponding PCRs value extracted from the TPM and the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller; and

finally, sending, by the access requestor, the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller, a random number N_AR generated by the TPM of the access requestor, an AIK certificate Cert_AR-AIK of the access requestor, a PCRs list PCRsList_AC requested by the access requestor from the access controller, a PCRs value PCRs_AR requested by the access controller, a measurement log Log_AR corresponding to the PCRs value requested by the access controller, and the signature generated by the access requestor in the TPM by using the AIK private key for the corresponding PCRs value extracted from the TPM and the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller to the access controller;

(3.3) after receiving the information sent from the access requestor in Step (3.2), firstly, enabling, by the access controller, the TPM to verify consistency of the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller and use a public key in the AIK certificate of the access requestor to verify the validity of the AIK signature of the access requestor;

then, extracting, by the access controller, a corresponding PCRs value from the TPM according to the PCRs list requested by the access requestor;

afterward, generating, by the access controller, a signature in the TPM by using an AIK private key for the corresponding PCRs value extracted from the TPM and the random number N_AR generated by the TPM of the access requestor; and

finally, sending, by the access controller, the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller, the random number N_AR generated by the TPM of the access requestor, the AIK certificate Cert_AR-AIK of the access requestor, the PCRs value PCRs_AR requested by the access controller, the measurement log Log_AR corresponding to the PCRs value requested by the access controller, the signature generated by the access requestor in the TPM by using the AIK private key for the corresponding PCRs value extracted from the TPM and the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller, a random number N_AC generated by an access controller user, the AIK certificate Cert_AC-AIK of the access controller, a PCRs value PCRs_AC requested by the access requestor, a measurement log Log_AC corresponding to the PCRs value requested by the access requestor, and the signature generated by the access controller in the TPM by using the AIK private key for the corresponding PCRs value extracted from the TPM and the random number N_AR generated by the TPM of the access requestor to a policy manager;

(3.4) after receiving the information sent from the access controller in Step (3.3), firstly, using, by the policy manager, public keys corresponding to the respective AIK certificates of the access requestor and the access controller to verify the validity of the AIK signatures and the AIK certificates of the access requestor and the access controller;

then, recalculating, by the policy manager, corresponding PCRs values according to the measurement logs of the corresponding PCRs values extracted from the respective TPMs of the access requestor and the access controller and according to standard integrity measurement value of various platform components in a database, and comparing the recalculated corresponding PCRs values with the corresponding PCRs values in the information sent from the access controller in Step (3.3);

afterward, creating, by the policy manager, an AIK certificate authentication and platform integrity verification result Result_AIK-PCRs of the access requestor and the access controller, and using a private key corresponding to an identity certificate of the policy manager to generate a signature [Result_AIK-PCRs]_Sig for the created AIK certificate authentication and platform integrity verification result; and

finally, sending, by the policy manager, the AIK certificate authentication and platform integrity verification result Result_AIK-PCRs, of the access requestor and the access controller as well as the signature [Result_AIK-PCRs]_Sig generated by the policy manager for the AIK certificate authentication and platform integrity verification result to the access controller;

(3.5) after receiving the information sent from the policy manager in Step (3.4), firstly, verifying, by the access controller, whether a random number N_AC generated by an access controller user is consistent with the random number N_AC generated by the access controller user in the information sent from the policy manager in Step (3.4), and verifying the validity of a user signature of the policy manager;

then, enabling, by the access controller, the TPM to verify consistency of the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller, and verify consistency between the AIK certificate Cert_AR-AIK of the access requestor and the PCRs value PCRs_AR requested by the access controller;

afterward, verifying, by the access controller, an AIK certificate verification result Re_AR-AIK of the access requestor and a platform integrity verification result Re_AR of the access requestor, and creating a platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor; and

finally, sending, by the access controller, the information in Step (3.4) and the signature generated by the access controller in the TPM by using the AIK private key for the corresponding PCRs value extracted from the TPM and the random number N_AR generated by the TPM of the access requestor to the access requestor; and

(3.6) after receiving the information sent from the access controller in Step (3.5), firstly, verifying, by the access requestor, the validity of the AIK signature of the access controller and the user signature of the policy manager;

then, enabling, by the access requestor, the TPM to verify consistency of the random number N_AR generated by the TPM of the access requestor;

afterward, verifying, by the access requestor, consistency between the AIK certificate of the access controller and the PCRs value requested by the access requestor; and

finally, verifying, by the access requestor, an AIK certificate verification result Re_AC-AIK of the access controller and a platform integrity verification result Re_AC of the access controller, and creating a platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor.

4. The TNC method according to claim 3, wherein the AIK certificate authentication and platform integrity verification result Result_AIK-PCRs of the access requestor and the access controller created in Step (3.4) comprises:

the random number N_AC generated by the access controller user, the random number N_S generated by the TPM of the access controller, the AIK certificate Cert_AR-AIK of the access requestor, the PCRs value PCRs_AR requested by the access controller, the platform integrity verification result Re_AR of the access requestor, the random number N_AR generated by the TPM of the access requestor, the AIK certificate Cert_AC-AIK of the access controller, the PCRs value PCRs_AC requested by the access requestor, the platform integrity verification result Re_AC of the access controller, the AIK certificate verification result Re_AR-AIK of the access requestor, and the AIK certificate verification result Re_AC-AIK of the access controller.

5. The TNC method according to claim 1, wherein the recommendations sent from the TNC server and the TNC client to the network access controller and the network access requestor in Step (4.) are access grant information, access denial information, or isolation remediation information.

6. The TNC method according to claim 2, wherein the recommendations sent from the TNC server and the TNC client to the network access controller and the network access requestor in Step (4.) are access grant information, access denial information, or isolation remediation information.

7. The TNC method according to claim 3, wherein the recommendations sent from the TNC server and the TNC client to the network access controller and the network access requestor in Step (4.) are access grant information, access denial information, or isolation remediation information.

8. The TNC method according to claim 4, wherein the recommendations sent from the TNC server and the TNC client to the network access controller and the network access requestor in Step (4.) are access grant information, access denial information, or isolation remediation information.

9. The TNC method according to claim 3, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.5), when the access controller needs to exchange integrity information with the access requestor and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.1) to Step (3.6) are repeated.

10. The TNC method according to claim 3, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.5), when the access controller needs to exchange integrity information with the access requestor and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.1) to Step (3.6) are repeated.

11. The TNC method according to claim 7, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.5), when the access controller needs to exchange integrity information with the access requestor and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.1) to Step (3.6) are repeated.

12. The TNC method according to claim 8, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.5), when the access controller needs to exchange integrity information with the access requestor and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.1) to Step (3.6) are repeated.

13. The TNC method according to claim 3, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.6), when the access requestor needs to exchange integrity information with the access controller and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.2) to Step (3.6) are repeated.

14. The TNC method according to claim 3, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.6), when the access requestor needs to exchange integrity information with the access controller and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.2) to Step (3.6) are repeated.

15. The TNC method according to claim 11, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.6), when the access requestor needs to exchange integrity information with the access controller and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.2) to Step (3.6) are repeated.

16. The TNC method according to claim 12, wherein in the process of creating the platform integrity evaluation result of the access requestor in Step (3.6), when the access requestor needs to exchange integrity information with the access controller and verify the integrity information again, Step (3.2) to Step (3.6) are repeated.