Providing encrypted end-to-end email delivery between secure email clusters
AssigneeCA, Inc.
InventorDhrubojyoti Biswas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The systems and methods described provide a seamless end-to-end email delivery between secure email clusters without reliance on prior sharing of encryption keys or protocol configurations. The solution can receive a request to transmit an email to a recipient identified by a domain of the recipient. The solution can transmit a first query to a domain name service (DNS) to fetch one or more records corresponding to the domain of the recipient. The one or more records can identify a key service. The solution can receive, from the key service responsive to a second query to the key service, a key for encrypting the email. The solution can encrypt at least a portion of the email based at least on the key and transmit the encrypted email to the recipient.
Claims19
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a mail transport agent (MTA) of a sender, a request to transmit an email to a recipient identified by a domain of the recipient;
- transmitting, by the MTA of the sender using a RCPT_TO command of a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), a first query to a domain name service (DNS) to fetch one or more records corresponding to the domain of the recipient, the one or more records identifying a key service;
- receiving, by the MTA from the key service responsive to a second query transmitted to the key service using the RCPT_TO command, a key for encrypting the email;
- identifying, by the MTA, a configuration for encrypting the email by the sender and decrypting the email by the recipient using the key;
- generating, by the sender responsive to the configuration, the key for a session between the sender and the recipient;
- encrypting, by at least one of the sender or the MTA, at least a portion of the email based at least on the key;
- and
- transmitting the encrypted email to the recipient.
A system comprising:
- at least one processor coupled with memory and configured to:
- receive a request to transmit an email to a recipient identified by a domain of the recipient;
- transmit a first query to a domain name service (DNS) using a RCPT_TO command of a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) to fetch one or more records corresponding to the domain of the recipient, the one or more records identifying a key service;
- identify a configuration for encrypting the email by a sender of the email;
- transmit, responsive to the configuration, the second query to the key service, the second query requesting the key;
- receive, from the key service responsive to the second query to the key service transmitted using the RCPT_TO command, a key for encrypting the email;
- encrypt at least a portion of the email based at least on the key;
- and
- transmit the encrypted email to the recipient.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a service, cause the at least one processor to:
- receive a request to transmit an email to a recipient identified by a domain of the recipient;
- transmit a first query to a domain name service (DNS) using a RCPT_TO command of a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) to fetch one or more records corresponding to the domain of the recipient, the one or more records identifying a key service;
- receive, from the key service responsive to a second query transmitted to the key service using the RCPT_TO command, a key for encrypting the email;
- encrypt at least a portion of the email based at least on the key;
- and
- transmit the encrypted email to the recipient;
- and
- wherein the DNS corresponds to the sender and is configured to receive from a second DNS of the recipient a first record of the one or more records corresponding to the domain of the recipient and transmit to the second DNS a second record of the one or more records corresponding to a second domain of the sender.
A system comprising:
- at least one processor coupled with memory and configured to:
- intercept a RCPT_TO command for an email to a recipient identified by a domain of the recipient;
- responsive to the intercepted RCPT_TO command, transmit a first query to a domain name service (DNS) using a RCPT_TO command of a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) to fetch one or more records corresponding to the domain of the recipient, the one or more records identifying a key service;
- receive, from the key service responsive to a second query, transmitted responsive to the intercepted RCPT_TO command, to the key service transmitted using the RCPT_TO command, a key for encrypting the email;
- encrypt at least a portion of the email based at least on the key;
- and transmit the encrypted email to the recipient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.