Certificate enrollment with purchase to limit sybil attacks in peer-to-peer network
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsCullen F. Jennings, Jonathan D. Rosenberg, Radha Venkatesh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system may protect against Sybil attacks on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network based on each one the nodes in the P2P network being identified by a corresponding certificate. In particular, a node may receive a license key, where the license key is evidence of a purchased product license. The node may transmit a message included in the license key to a certificate authority. The node may receive a certificate from the certificate authority in response to authentication of the message. The node may be identified in the P2P network with a node identifier included in the certificate.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- a memory;
- and
- a processor in communication with the memory, the memory including computer code executable with the processor, wherein the computer code is configured to:
- receive, at a node on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, a license key, the license key being evidence of a purchased product license;
- transmit a message included in the license key to a certificate authority from the node;
- receive, at the node, a certificate from the certificate authority in response to authentication of the message;
- identify the node in the P2P network with a node identifier included in the certificate;
- and
- verify identities of a plurality of nodes in the P2P network that communicate with the node based on certificates received from the nodes.
A non-transitory tangible computer readable storage medium comprising logic encoded therein executable with a processor to:
- store a license key in a node of a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, the license key being proof of purchase of a product license of a product associated with the node;
- transmit a message included in the license key to a certificate authority from the node;
- and
- receive, at the node, a certificate from the certificate authority in response to authentication of the message;
- identify the node in the P2P network with a node identifier included in the certificate;
- and
- verify identities of a plurality of nodes in the P2P network that communicate with the node based on certificates received from the nodes.
A method comprising:
- receiving, at a node on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, a license key from a license server, the license key being proof of purchase of a product;
- transmitting a message included in the license key to a certificate authority from the node;
- receiving, at the node, a certificate from the certificate authority in response to authentication of the message;
- identifying the node in the P2P network based on the certificate;
- and
- accepting connections to the node only from nodes in the P2P network that transmit valid certificates to the node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.