California Inventors Develop User Authentication Information Management Method

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 6 -- Chenhong Xia of San Jose, Calif., and William Earl Malloy of Santa Clara, Calif., have developed a user authentication information management method that receives a meta-password from a user.

According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A repository lists network addresses and associated handles, each handle having an associated encoded password. An authentication response from the user is intercepted. A modified authentication response is generated by identifying a network address to which the response is directed, searching for the identified network address in the repository, identifying a handle corresponding to the address based on the searching, decoding the password associated with the handle using the meta-password as a decoding key, and substituting the decoded password for the meta-password in the authentication response."

An abstract of the invention, released by the Patent Office, said: "The method also generates pseudo-random passwords consistent with password rules. The repository can reside on a client device, a proxy server, a local area network, or a security server having an Internet protocol address. The repository can also be disposed at a database service."

The inventors were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,103,912 on Sept. 5.

The patent has been assigned to International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.

The original application was filed on June 29, 2001, and is available at: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,103,912.PN.&OS=PN/7,103,912&RS=PN/7,103,912.

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