System and method for certificate searching and retrieval

• US 20060036849A1
• Filed: 08/09/2004
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Adams, Neil P., Brown, Michael S., Little, Herbert A., Tapuska, David F.
• Application Number:
  US10/913,694
• Publication Number:
  US 20060036849A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/156
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3265 using certificate chains, trees or paths; Hierarchical trust model

Abstract

A system and method for searching and retrieving certificates, which may be used in the processing of encoded messages. In one embodiment, a certificate synchronization application is programmed to perform certificate searches by querying one or more certificate servers using contact information stored on a computing device, from an address book for example. The invention allows certificates for contacts to be automatically searched for and retrieved from certificate servers, so that users need not manually search for certificates associated with each individual contact for which information is stored in a contact information source.

Claims

1. A method for searching and retrieving certificates associated with one or more contacts, the method comprising the steps of:

a) identifying one or more certificate servers to be searched;

b) identifying one or more contact information sources, each storing contact information for at least one contact;

c) for each contact of at least a subset of the contacts for which contact information is stored in the one or more contact information sources, searching each identified certificate server for certificates associated therewith by submitting at least one query constructed using at least some of the contact information for the respective contact to the respective certificate server, wherein the searching step is performed by a certificate synchronization application;

d) for each identified certificate server, downloading certificates satisfying the at least one query submitted thereto, to a computing device; and

e) storing at least a subset of certificates downloaded at step d) in one or more certificate stores,

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the certificate synchronization application executes and resides on the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more contact information sources is an address book.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more contact information sources resides on a mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein step c) is performed when the mobile device is coupled to the computing device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more contact information sources is an address book residing on the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the one or more certificate stores is selected from the following group:

a certificate store on the computing device; and

a certificate store on the mobile device.

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

generating a list of certificates identifying at least a subset of certificates downloaded to the computing device at step d);

displaying the list to a user; and

receiving user selections of selected certificates identified in the list;

wherein the at least a subset of certificates stored at step e) comprises the selected certificates.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of filtering out duplicate downloaded certificates prior to the step e).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more certificate servers comprises one or more LDAP servers.

11. A software application comprising a plurality of instructions stored on a computer-readable medium, the instructions for a method of searching and retrieving certificates associated with one or more contacts, the method comprising the steps of:

a) identifying one or more certificate servers to be searched;

b) identifying one or more contact information sources, each storing contact information for at least one contact;

c) for each contact of at least a subset of the contacts for which contact information is stored in the one or more contact information sources, searching each identified certificate server for certificates associated therewith by submitting at least one query constructed using at least some of the contact information for the respective contact to the respective certificate server, wherein the searching step is performed by the software application;

d) for each identified certificate server, downloading certificates satisfying the at least one query submitted thereto, to a computing device; and

e) storing at least a subset of certificates downloaded at step d) in one or more certificate stores.

12. A system for searching and retrieving certificates associated with one or more contacts comprising at least one computing device, wherein a certificate synchronization application executes and resides on a computing device of the at least one computing device, the certificate synchronization application programmed to;

a) identify one or more certificate servers to be searched;

b) identify one or more contact information sources, each storing contact information for at least one contact;

c) for each contact of at least a subset of the contacts for which contact information is stored in the one or more contact information sources, search each identified certificate server for certificates associated therewith by submitting at least one query constructed using at least some of the contact information for the respective contact to the respective certificate server, wherein the searching is performed by the certificate synchronization application;

d) for each identified certificate server, download certificates satisfying the at least one query submitted thereto, to one of the at least one computing device; and

e) store at least a subset of downloaded certificates in one or more certificate stores.