Patent ID: 9294286
Filing Date: 2016-03-22
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A system comprising: a plurality of network hardware devices, including one or more peer managed hardware devices and one or more management hardware devices, deployed within a network; wherein the plurality of network hardware devices are pre-configured, by a manufacturer or a distributor of the plurality of network hardware devices prior to being installed within the network, to form a web of trust by storing within each network hardware device of the plurality of network hardware devices (i) a digital certificate signed by the manufacturer or the distributor and (ii) a unique identifier of the network hardware device, the unique identifier individually identifying each of the one or more peer managed hardware devices and each of the one or more management hardware devices; wherein a peer managed hardware device of the one or more peer managed hardware devices is configured to establish a management tunnel with a management hardware device of the one or more management hardware devices based on an address of the management hardware device received from a trusted peer managed hardware device of the one or more peer managed hardware devices; and wherein, prior to allowing the management hardware device to use the management tunnel to perform management functionality in relation to the peer managed hardware device, the peer managed hardware device is configured to verify credentials of the management hardware device by causing the unique identifier of the management hardware device to be confirmed with reference to a pre-configured identifier of an authorized management hardware device stored within the peer managed hardware device.