Patent ID: 8661253
Filing Date: 2014-02-25
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for providing an integrated and mutual authentication in a communication network, the method comprising: at a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) client: transmitting a service ticket request to a key distribution center in response to a provision of a user's security credentials to authenticate to the key distribution center; responsive to the transmitting, receiving a session key encrypted with a Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) session key shared between a SIP client and a Kerberos authentication server, and receiving a service ticket encrypted with a SIP service key shared between a SIP server and the Kerberos authentication server, wherein the service ticket includes the session key; decrypting the session key encrypted with the TGT session key shared between the SIP client and the Kerberos authentication server; transmitting the service ticket to the SIP server; utilizing the session key for mutual digest authentication with the SIP server, upon the service ticket being decrypted by the SIP server using the SIP service key shared between the SIP server and the Kerberos authentication server, conveying an authorization header, comprising a challenge value, to the SIP server; in response to conveying the authorization header, receiving a responsive authorization header, comprising a new challenge value, from the SIP server; storing a portion of the received authorization header; and pre-emptively sending a new authorization header, based on the stored portion of the received authorization header, to the SIP server without first receiving another new challenge value from the SIP server.