Patent · US Expired

Access control subsystem and method for distributed computer system using locally cached authentication credentials

US5235642A · kind A · utility

498Cited by
6References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 21, 1992
Grant dateAug 10, 1993
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 21, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2221/2151
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A distributed computer system has a number of computers coupled thereto at distinct nodes. The computer at each node of the distributed system has a trusted computing base that includes an authentication agent for authenticating requests received from principals at other nodes in the system. Requests are transmitted to servers as messages that include a first identifier provided by the requester and a second identifier provided by the authentication agent of the requester node. Each server process is provided with a local cache of authentication data that identifies requesters whose previous request messages have been authenticated. When a request is received, the server checks the request's first and second identifiers against the entries in its local cache. If there is a match, then the request is known to be authentic. Otherwise, the server node's authentication agent is called to obtain authentication credentials from the requester's node to authenticate the request message. The principal identifier of the requester and the received credentials are stored in a local cache by the server node's authentication agent. The server process also stores a record in its local cache indic…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.