Method for producing, allocating and checking authorization approvals
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsSteffen Fries, Jürgen Gessner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a method for producing, allocating and checking authorization approvals that are required in order to fulfill tasks specified by an action plan through performance, by a service technician, of actions defined by the tasks on a device or component of a distributed structure on-the-fly generation and distribution of authorization approvals for service technicians is enabled as a function of necessary actions or measures which are to be performed in the form of tasks and are defined as part of an action plan which is contained or recorded in a work schedule.
Claims18
A method for producing, allocating and checking authorization approvals that are required in order to fulfill tasks specified by an action plan through performance, by a service technician, of actions on a device or component of a distributed structure, comprising:
- generating at least one authorization approval having a limited period of validity that is bound to an identity certificate of the service technician which is stored on a storage medium carried or able to be carried by the service technician and that is required for fulfilling at least one task specified by the action plan;
- signing the authorization approval with a non-public key;
- wherein the non-public key comprises a non-public key associated with a service center producing the action plan;
- storing the signed authorization approval on a storage medium carried or able to be carried by the service technician;
- making at least the identity certificate and the signed authorization approval available to the device or component by the service technician;
- checking the period of validity of the identity certificate by the device or component;
- checking the signature of the signed authorization approval by the device or component with the aid of a public key associated with the non-public key used for generating the signature as well as a main certificate of a certification authority that issued the public key;
- wherein both the public key and the main certificate of the certification authority are available or are made available to the device or component;
- checking the authorization approval by the device or component, including checking the period of validity of the authorization approval;
- and
- if the result of all the checks confirms the identity of the service technician and allows the tasks to be fulfilled, granting of the permission to the service technician by the device or component to carry out the actions requiring to be performed in order to fulfill the tasks set or specified by the action plan.
A system comprising a device or component, a storage medium, and a service center for producing, allocating and checking authorization approvals that are required in order to fulfill tasks specified by an action plan through performance, by a service technician, of actions on the device or component of a distributed structure, wherein:
- the service center is operable to generate at least one authorization approval having a limited period of validity that is bound to an identity certificate of the service technician which is stored on a storage medium carried or able to be carried by the service technician and that is required for fulfilling at least one task specified by the action plan;
- the service center is further operable to sign the authorization approval with a non-public key;
- wherein the non-public key used for signing the authorization approval comprises the non-public key of the service center;
- the service center is further operable to store the signed authorization approval on the storage medium carried or able to be carried by the service technician;
- at least the identity certificate and the signed authorization approval is made available to the device or component by the service technician;
- the device or component is operable to check the period of validity of the identity certificate;
- the device or component is further operable to check the signature of the signed authorization approval with the aid of a public key associated with the non-public key used for generating the signature as well as a main certificate of a certification authority that issued the public key;
- both the public key and the main certificate of the certification authority are available or are made available to the device or component;
- the device or component is further operable to check the authorization approval, including checking the period of validity of the authorization approval;
- and
- if the result of all the checks confirms the identity of the service technician and allows the tasks to be fulfilled, the device or component is further operable to grant permission to the service technician to carry out the actions requiring to be performed in order to fulfill the tasks set or specified by the action plan.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.