Establishing secure mutual trust using an insecure password

• US 8,332,643 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2010
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pyle, Harry S., Lieberman, Bruce Louis, Simon, Daniel R., Simonnet, Guillaume, Dollar, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Su, Sarah
• Application Number:
  US12/907,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20110035593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 784 Days
• Field of Search: 713/155, 713/156, 713/168, 713/169, 380/278
• US Class Current: 713/169
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3228 One-time or temporary data, i.e. information which is sent for every authentication or authorization, e.g. one-time-password, one-time-token or one-time-key
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3273 for mutual authentication network architectures or network communication protocols for achieving mutual authentication in a packet data network H04L63/0869

Abstract

A process for establishing secure mutual trust includes generating a one-time-password. The one-time-password is transferred between the devices in a communication occurring off of the network. Each device generates a set of authenticators by hashing a plurality of sub-strings of the password and the device'"'"'s authentication certificate with a respective set of nonces. The devices exchange the respective sets of authenticators. Each device then alternates revealing its respective set of nonces and its authentication certificate in a multi-stage process. The devices re-calculate the authenticators based upon the respective set of nonces and authentication certificate revealed by the other device along with the one-time-password sub-strings that it posses. If each device determines that the authenticators re-calculated by the given device matches the authenticators previously received from the other device, secure mutual trust is established.

Claims

1. A method of establishing trust between a first device and a second device, comprising:

generating, by the first device, a first set of n password substrings from a one-time-password known to the second device, wherein n is an integer greater than one;

receiving n received authenticators from the second device, wherein a first received authenticator of the n received authenticators is a cryptographic encoding comprising a first nonce of n nonces and a first password substring of a second set of n password substrings generated by the second device;

receiving the n nonces from the second device;

generating, by the first device, n corresponding authenticators, wherein each of the n corresponding authenticators is a cryptographic encoding comprising one of the nonces of the n nonces and one of the password substrings of the first set of n password substrings, wherein a first corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators is a cryptographic encoding comprising a first nonce of the n nonces and a first password substring of the first set of n password substrings;

verifying that each received authenticator of the n received authenticators matches a corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators including verifying that the first corresponding authenticator matches the first received authenticator; and

establishing trust between the first device and the second device after each received authenticator of the n received authenticators has been verified.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each received authenticator of the n received authenticators is received individually from the second device, wherein each nonce of the n nonces is received individually from the second device, wherein one of the n corresponding authenticators is generated for each received nonce, and wherein each received authenticator is matched to one of the n corresponding authenticators before a next received authenticator of the n received authenticators and a next nonce of the n nonces are received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the verification step is conducted n times.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a confirmation to the second device after verifying that each received authenticator of the n received authenticators matches a corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the first device, a second set of n nonces; and

generating, by the first device, n generated authenticators, wherein each generated authenticator is a cryptographic encoding comprising one nonce of the second set of n nonces and one password substring of the first set of n password substrings.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

sending each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators to the second device; and

sending each nonce of the second set of n nonces to the second device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a confirmation from the second device after verification of each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators; and

establishing secure mutual trust between the first device and the second device when each received authenticator of the n received authenticators has been verified by the first device and each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators has been verified by the second device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the cryptographic encoding of each received authenticator of the n received authenticators further comprises a second device identifier.

9. A computer system comprising a first device and a second device, the first device comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors perform a method of establishing trust between the first device and the second device, the method comprising;

generating, by the first device, a first set of n password substrings from a one-time-password known to the second device, wherein n is an integer greater than one;

receiving a first authenticator of n received authenticators from the second device, wherein the first authenticator is a cryptographic encoding comprising a first nonce of a set of n nonces and a first password substring of a second set of n password substrings generated by the second device;

receiving the first nonce of the set of n nonces from the second device;

generating, by the first device, a first corresponding authenticator of n corresponding authenticators, wherein the first corresponding authenticator is a cryptographic encoding comprising the first nonce and a first password substring of the first set of n password substrings, and wherein each corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators is a cryptographic encoding of one nonce of the n nonces and one password substring of the first set of n password substrings;

verifying that the first received authenticator matches the first corresponding authenticator;

receiving a next authenticator of the n received authenticators and a next nonce of the n nonces from the second device, wherein the next authenticator is a cryptographic encoding comprising the next nonce of the set of n nonces and a next password substring of the second set of n password substrings generated by the second device;

generating, by the first device, a next corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators, wherein the next corresponding authenticator is a cryptographic encoding comprising the next nonce and a next password substring of the first set of n password substrings;

verifying that the next received authenticator matches the next corresponding authenticator; and

establishing trust between the first device and the second device when each received authenticator of the n received authenticators has been verified.

10. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

repeating the verification step until each of the n received authenticators has been verified.

11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein steps are conducted in any order.

12. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

sending a confirmation to the second device after verifying that each received authenticator of the n received authenticators matches a corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators.

13. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

generating, by the first device, a second set of n nonces; and

generating, by the first device, n generated authenticators, wherein each generated authenticator is a cryptographic encoding comprising one nonce of the second set of n nonces and one password substring of the first set of n password substrings.

14. The computer system of claim 13, further comprising:

sending each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators to the second device; and

sending each nonce of the second set of n nonces to the second device.

15. The computer system of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a confirmation from the second device after verification of each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators; and

establishing secure mutual trust between the first device and the second device when each received authenticator of the n received authenticators has been verified by the first device and each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators has been verified by the second device.

16. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the cryptographic encoding of each received authenticator of the n received authenticators further comprises a second device identifier.

17. A computer medium not consisting of a propagated data signal, the computer medium storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors configure the one or more processors to perform a method of establishing trust between a first device and a second device, the method comprising:

generating, by the first device, a first set of n password substrings from a one-time-password known to the second device, wherein n is an integer greater than one;

receiving n received authenticators from the second device, wherein a first received authenticator of the n received authenticators is a cryptographic encoding comprising a first nonce of n nonces and a first password substring of a second set of n password substrings generated by the second device;

receiving the n nonces from the second device;

generating, by the first device, n corresponding authenticators, wherein each of the n corresponding authenticators is a cryptographic encoding comprising one of the nonces of the n nonces and one of the password substrings of the first set of password substrings, wherein a first corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators is a cryptographic encoding comprising a first nonce of the n nonces and a first password substring of the first set of n password substrings;

verifying that each received authenticator of the n received authenticators matches a corresponding authenticator of the n corresponding authenticators including verifying that the first corresponding authenticator matches the first received authenticator; and

establishing trust between the first device and the second device after each received authenticator of the n received authenticators has been verified.

18. The computer medium of claim 17, wherein each received authenticator of the n received authenticators is received individually from the second device, wherein each nonce of the n nonces is received individually from the second device, wherein one of the n corresponding authenticators is generated for each received nonce, and wherein each received authenticator is matched to one of the n corresponding authenticators before a next received authenticator of the n received authenticators and a next nonce of the n nonces are received.

19. The computer medium of claim 17, further comprising:

generating, by the first device, a second set of n nonces; and

generating, by the first device, n generated authenticators, wherein each generated authenticator is a cryptographic encoding comprising one nonce of the second set of n nonces and one password substring of the first set of n password substrings.

20. The computer medium of claim 19, further comprising:

sending each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators to the second device;

sending each nonce of the second set of n nonces to the second device; and

establishing secure mutual trust between the first device and the second device when each received authenticator of the n received authenticators has been verified by the first device and each generated authenticator of the n generated authenticators has been verified by the second device.