Patent ID: 11917081
Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 16:
17. A computing platform comprising:
an issuing device; and
at least one requesting device,
wherein the issuing device comprises:
a first entity having a hardware processor configured to respond to a challenge request received from a requesting device by transmitting challenge information comprising a cryptographic challenge to the requesting device; and
a second entity having a hardware processor configured to respond to a certification request received from the requesting device, the certification request comprising a public key and ownership information of the public key, by issuing a digital certificate certifying the ownership information of the public key,
wherein the ownership information comprises counterparty identity information relating to a ledger of a distributed database, and
wherein the second entity is further configured to issue the digital certificate under condition that the second entity successfully verifies that: a cryptographic response to the cryptographic challenge has been posted to the ledger of the distributed database; the cryptographic response is associated, in the ledger, with the counterparty identity information included in the ownership information of the certification request; and the cryptographic response constitutes a valid proof of ownership of the public key, and

wherein the at least one requesting device comprises:
a first unit having a hardware processor configured to transmit the challenge request to and receive challenge information comprising the cryptographic challenge from the issuing device;
a second unit having a hardware processor configured to create, using a private key of a cryptographic key pair, the cryptographic response to the cryptographic challenge, the cryptographic response constituting the valid proof of ownership of the public key of the cryptographic key pair;
a third unit having a hardware processor configured to post the created cryptographic response to the ledger of the distributed database such that the posted cryptographic response is associated therein with the counterparty identity information of the requesting device;
a fourth unit having a hardware processor configured to create the certification request comprising the public key and the ownership information of the public key of the cryptographic key pair, wherein the ownership information comprises the counterparty identity information of the requesting device; and
a fifth unit having a hardware processor configured to transmit the certification request to and receive an issued digital certificate certifying the ownership information of the public key from the issuing device,

wherein the digital certificate provides an owner of the public key administrative privileges to a server entity, and
wherein an attempt to access administrative privileges of the server entity is prevented when a digital footprint of a rogue digital certificate does not match with the digital certificate posted to the ledger of the distributed database.