Peer-to-peer smime mechanism
AssigneeRed Hat, Inc.
InventorSteven W. Parkinson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for sending a self-asserted certificate is described. In one embodiment, a mail client of a sender is configured to generate a public and private key pair, to create a self-signed certificate, and to form an introduction message addressed to a recipient to enable use of the self-signed certificate prior to corresponding with the recipient. A mail client of a recipient is configured to display an indicator of a receipt of the introduction message from the sender. The indicator comprises a user interface query to the recipient to verify and accept the sender-signed certificate in response to receiving the introduction message from the sender.
Claims37
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- providing a mail client configured to generate a public and private key pair and to create a self-signed certificate;
- and
- forming an introduction message addressed to a recipient to enable use of the self-signed certificate prior to corresponding with the recipient.
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- providing a mail client configured to display an indicator of a receipt of an introduction message from a sender, the introduction message comprising a public key of the sender and a sender-signed certificate;
- and
- generating a user interface query to a user of the mail client to verify and accept the sender-signed certificate in response to receiving the introduction message from the sender.
An article of manufacture comprising:
- a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
- providing a mail client configured to generate a public and private key pair and to create a self-signed certificate;
- and
- forming an introduction message addressed to a recipient to enable use of the self-signed certificate prior to corresponding with the recipient.
An article of manufacture comprising:
- a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
- providing a mail client configured to display an indicator of a receipt of an introduction message from a sender, the introduction message comprising a public key of the sender and a sender-signed certificate;
- and
- generating a user interface query to a user of the mail client to verify and accept the sender-signed certificate in response to receiving the introduction message from the sender.
A client comprising:
- a mail client configured to generate a public and private key pair, to create a self-signed certificate, and to form an introduction message addressed to a recipient to enable use of the self-signed certificate prior to corresponding with the recipient.
A client comprising:
- a mail client configured to display an indicator of a receipt of an introduction message from a sender, the introduction message comprising a public key of the sender and a sender-signed certificate,
- wherein the indicator comprises a user interface query to a user of the mail client to verify and accept the sender-signed certificate in response to receiving the introduction message from the sender.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.