Utilizing a stapling technique with a server-based certificate validation protocol to reduce overhead for mobile communication devices

A method at a server-based validation protocol (SCVP) server for providing certificate validation status information comprising:

• receiving a SCVP request from an entity;
• determining that a subject of a certificate to be validated is equivalent to that of the entity;
• validating a certificate path between the subject of the certificate to be validated and a set of trusted certificates;
• and
• returning a SCVP staple associated with the validated certificate path.

A method at a subject that issues a certificate for authenticating with a relying party comprising:

• requesting at a subject a server-based certification validation protocol (SCVP) response for a subject certificate from the subject to a SCVP server;
• the subject receiving a SCVP response from the SCVP server in response to the requesting;
• the subject transmitting the SCVP response to the relying party;
• and
• the subject proving to the relying party that the subject has possession of a public key referred to in the SCVP response, wherein the relying party, the subject, and the SCVP server are a set of computing devices communicatively linked to each other via at least one network.