Patent ID: 8195944
Filing Date: 2012-06-05
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. In a network comprising a Manager Station having a first digital certificate and an Agent Station having a second digital certificate, a method comprising: generating a simple network management protocol (SNMP) configuration file at the Manager Station, wherein the SNMP configuration file comprises SNMP authentication keys to be used by the Manager Station and the Agent Station for authentication, and SNMP encryption keys to be used by the Manager Station and the Agent Station for encrypting communications between the Manager Station and the Agent Station; mutually authenticating based on the first digital certificate and the second digital certificate to establish a secure session between the Manager Station and the Agent Station; encrypting the SNMP configuration file at the Manager Station, and in response to the secure session being established, transmitting by the Manager Station, the encrypted SNMP configuration file to the Agent Station; decrypting the encrypted SNMP configuration file at the Agent Station to generate the SNMP authentication keys and the SNMP encryption keys; and conducting secure SNMP communications between the Manager Station and the Agent Station using the SNMP authentication and encryption keys.