Patent ID: 6763459
Filing Date: 2004-07-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A public key infrastructure (PKI) comprising:a subject; an off-line registration authority for issuing a first unsigned certificate off-line to the subject that binds a public key of the subject to long-term identification information related to the subject, the registration authority maintaining a certificate database of unsigned certificates in which it stores the first unsigned certificate; an on-line credentials server for issuing a short-term disposable certificate on-line to the subject, the short-term disposable certificate binds the public key of the subject from the first unsigned certificate to the long-term identification information related to the subject from the first unsigned certificate, wherein the credentials server maintains a table that contains entries corresponding to valid unsigned certificates stored in the certificate database; and a verifier, wherein the subject presents the short-term disposable certificate to the verifier for authentication and demonstrates that the subject has knowledge of a private key corresponding to the public key in the short-term disposable certificate.