Authentication

A software license distribution system is arranged for connection between an external software provider and one or more end user clients and provides licenses to access a software service. A storage portion stores a license pool provided by the provider. A request for a software license from a requesting end user client includes a user credential. A verification logic is arranged to verify the user credential by comparing it to a stored database of authorised credentials. A decision logic is arranged such that, when the user is verified, it determines whether there is an available license in the license pool. When there is an available license key, the available license key is selected, but when there is not an available license key, the decision logic requests a new license key from the external software provider. The decision logic is arranged to produce a cryptographic token comprising the selected license key using a cryptographic function and to send the cryptographic token to the requesting end user client and to record the cryptographic token and the user credential as a linked pair in a database.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from UK application GB 1912482.5, entitled “Authentication”, filed on 30 Aug. 2019, the entire contents and disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to a system for user authentication, particularly for use in a system for dynamic software license allocation.

BACKGROUND ART

In conventional software arrangements, known in the art per se, systems are typically set up such that a user wishing to access particular software will require a license to use that software or to access a service. The license, in effect, grants the user the right to use a copy of the software. Such licenses are ubiquitous across many different software environments, but by way of example include licenses to access a particular wireless network.

In an enterprise solution, an organisation may have access to a number of licenses, which may be acquired on a per-user basis, or may be acquired in bulk from the licensor and allocated to each user that requires use of the software individually.

When licenses are required to access software services (e.g. license to access a wireless network), it is desirable to have the ability to reuse those licenses across multiple user clients. Some solutions employ a ‘floating software license’ model, in which there are a ‘pool’ of licenses available to users, and when a user wishes to access the software, they request a license from that pool and these can be accessed concurrently by a defined number of end-users. Providing a license is available, one of the licenses is removed from pool and the user is provided with access to the software. If no license is available, the software can't be accessed. Once the user exits the software (or if the license expires), the license is returned to the pool for future use.

The Applicant has appreciated that there may be concerns regarding user anonymity with conventional software license distribution systems known in the art per se. Specifically, the software vendor (i.e. software provider) is generally able to track which license is allocated to which user, and determine how that license is being used. Similarly, in some prior art arrangements the user(s) may be able to see the specific license(s) in use which may be undesirable. The present invention seeks to improve the privacy of users in a system in which licenses are acquired from a license pool.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect, the present invention provides a software license distribution system arranged for connection between an external software provider and one or more end user clients, said software license distribution system comprising:a storage portion arranged to store a license pool comprising one or more software licenses from the external software provider;an interface arranged to receive a request for a software license from a requesting end user client, said request including a user credential;a verification logic arranged to receive said user credential and to compare said user credential to a set of approved user credentials, wherein the verification logic produces a verification flag only when the user credentials match an entry in the set of approved user credentials; anda decision logic arranged such that, when the verification flag has been produced by the verification logic, the decision logic determines whether there is an available license in the license pool and such that:when there is an available license key in the license pool, the decision logic selects the available license key as a selected license key; andwhen there is not an available license key in the license pool, the decision logic sends a request for a new license key to the external software provider and, when it receives the new license key from the external software provider, selects the new license key as the selected license key;the decision logic being further arranged to produce a cryptographic token comprising the selected license key using a cryptographic function;wherein the software license distribution system sends the cryptographic token to the requesting end user client and records the cryptographic token and the user credential as a linked pair in a database.

The first aspect of the present invention extends to a networked computer system comprising a software license distribution system, a software provider, and one or more end user clients, wherein the software license distribution system is connected between the software provider and the end user clients, wherein the software license distribution system comprises:a storage portion arranged to store a license pool comprising one or more software licenses from the software provider;an interface arranged to receive a request for a software license from a requesting end user client, said request including a user credential;a verification logic arranged to receive said user credential and to compare said user credential to a set of approved user credentials, wherein the verification logic produces a verification flag only when the user credentials match an entry in the set of approved user credentials; anda decision logic arranged such that, when the verification flag has been produced by the verification logic, the decision logic determines whether there is an available license in the license pool and such that:when there is an available license key in the license pool, the decision logic selects the available license key as a selected license key; andwhen there is not an available license key in the license pool, the decision logic sends a request for a new license key to the software provider and, when it receives the new license key from the software provider, selects the new license key as the selected license key;the decision logic being further arranged to produce a cryptographic token comprising the selected license key using a cryptographic function;wherein the software license distribution system sends the cryptographic token to the requesting end user client and records the cryptographic token and the user credential as a linked pair in a database.

The first aspect of the present invention also extends to a method of operating a software license distribution system connected between an external software provider and one or more end user clients, said method comprising:storing a license pool comprising one or more software licenses from the external software provider;receiving a request for a software license from a requesting end user client, said request including a user credential;comparing said user credential to a set of approved user credentials, and producing a verification flag only when the user credentials match an entry in the set of approved user credentials;when the verification flag has been produced, determining whether there is an available license in the license pool and such that:when there is an available license key in the license pool, the decision logic selects the available license key as a selected license key; andwhen there is not an available license key in the license pool, sending a request for a new license key to the external software provider and, upon receiving the new license key from the external software provider, selecting the new license key as the selected license key;producing a cryptographic token comprising the selected license key using a cryptographic function;sending the cryptographic token to the requesting end user client and recording the cryptographic token and the user credential as a linked pair in a database.

The first aspect of the present invention further extends to a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed on a suitable processor, cause the processor to carry out steps comprising:storing a license pool comprising one or more software licenses from the external software provider;receiving a request for a software license from a requesting end user client, said request including a user credential;comparing said user credential to a set of approved user credentials, and producing a verification flag only when the user credentials match an entry in the set of approved user credentials;when the verification flag has been produced, determining whether there is an available license in the license pool and such that:when there is an available license key in the license pool, the decision logic selects the available license key as a selected license key; andwhen there is not an available license key in the license pool, sending a request for a new license key to the external software provider and, upon receiving the new license key from the external software provider, selecting the new license key as the selected license key;producing a cryptographic token comprising the selected license key using a cryptographic function;sending the cryptographic token to the requesting end user client and recording the cryptographic token and the user credential as a linked pair in a database.

Thus it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention provide an improved software license distribution system which sits between the software provider and the end client, where the distribution system holds a pool of licenses that it can draw from when an end client requests a license for software that is provided by the software provider. If the license pool is depleted (e.g. if all of the licenses held in the pool are already in use in other sessions), the distribution system requests a new license from the software provider and adds it to the pool.

The software license distribution system is also referred to herein as a ‘dynamic user licensing allocation system’, where these terms are interchangeable at least in the context of this disclosure.

The software provider does not generally have access to the database that stores the linked pairs of user credentials and tokens. As the license pool is held by the software license distribution system and because the licenses are distributed as a cryptographic token, the software provider does not have any knowledge of which users have access to the software, only that the user is authorised by means of a license that the software provider allocated to the software license distribution system. Thus the software license distribution system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention provides anonymity to the users, where the users may obtain floating licenses for use of the software product.

The decision logic and the verification logic may be separate hardware and/or software units, or these may be combined in a single hardware and/or software unit, e.g. as a ‘decision engine’ or a ‘dynamic rules engine’. Thus the functions carried out by each of these logics may be conducted on the same physical device, or they may be carried out by separate devices within a system, e.g. a networked system. The term ‘logic’ as used herein will be understood by those skilled in the art to mean suitable hardware and/or software that carries out the associated function(s) and may, by way of non-limiting example only, include one or more of a software program or application, an integrated circuit, a processor, a microprocessor, a memory, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a decision engine, a state machine (e.g. a finite state machine), or any other suitable means known in the art per se.

Similarly, the storage portion may be any suitable memory or storage unit. By way of non-limiting example, the storage portion may comprise at least one of a hard drive, a solid state storage drive, a server, a read only memory, a random access memory, a server, a cloud storage solution, a database, etc. A single storage portion may provide storage of the license pool together with the set of approved user credentials and/or the database in which the linked pair of cryptographic token(s) and user credential(s) are stored, or each of these may be stored in separate storage portions as appropriate. For example in some embodiments, the storage portion may comprise a database, wherein the license pool, the set of approved user credentials and/or the database in which the linked pair of cryptographic token(s) and user credential(s) are stored in respective tables of the database. In such embodiments, read/write operations may be carried out on each of the tables through the use of an appropriate query function in a manner known in the art per se.

It will be appreciated that there are a number of cryptographic functions, known in the art per se, that could be applied in order to generate the cryptographic token from the license. However, in some embodiments, the cryptographic function comprises an encryption function. For example, in some such embodiments, the cryptographic function comprises a private key cryptography function.

In some potentially overlapping embodiments, the cryptographic function comprises a hashing function.

In some potentially overlapping embodiments, the cryptographic function comprises combining the selected license key with a salt before the cryptographic token is generated. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the term ‘salt’ as user herein means random or pseudo-random data that is appended to or mixed with the selected license key. This advantageously ensures that even if the same license key is distributed to the same end user client multiple times, the cryptographic token will be different each time, further aiding in preserving the anonymity of the end user.

The software the requesting end user wishes to access could be locally available on the end user client itself, needing the cryptographic token in order to make the software available for operation, e.g. by ‘unlocking’ the software. However, in a set of embodiments, the requesting end user client uses the cryptographic token to source the software directly from the service provider. In such embodiments, the requesting end user client provides the cryptographic token to the software provider, which upon receiving the token, grants access to the software. As the database linking the tokens to the user credentials is separate from the software provider, the software provider does not know the identity of the end user client, even when supplying the software to that end user client.

In a set of embodiments, the cryptographic token comprises the selected license key and a license password associated with the selected license key, wherein the software license distribution system is arranged to set the license password to an encrypted password derived from the user credential. For example, in a set of embodiments, the cryptographic function comprises encrypting a user credential with a private key to produce the encrypted password. In at least some embodiments, the user credential is a username or an email address, and the cryptographic function encrypts that username or email address to produce the encrypted password that is then used as the license password. A salt may, in some embodiments, be appended to the user credential prior to its encryption in order to prevent the same user credential resulting in the same license password each time. This salt may be in addition or an alternative to appending a salt to the license key as outlined above.

The software license distribution system described herein may be applicable to a wide range of different licensed software. However, in at least some embodiments, the software provider is arranged to provide a software service. In at least some such embodiments, the software service comprises a communications network. For example, in a set of embodiments, the software service comprises an access network. In a set of such embodiments, the access network comprises a Wi-Fi network and/or a mobile wireless network.

In some embodiments, the selected license key is returned to the license pool when the end user client releases said key. The software license distribution system may receive an indication from the end user client when the end user client no longer requires the allocated license key and return the selected license key to the license pool upon receiving that indication. Additionally or alternatively, the software license distribution system may, at least in some embodiments, allocate the selected license key to the end user client with a time limit, wherein upon expiration of said time limit, the selected license key is returned to the license pool.

Where the cryptographic token comprises the selected license key and a license password associated with the selected license key as outlined above, the software license distribution system may, at least in some embodiments, be arranged to reset the license password to a reset value when the selected license key is returned to the license pool. The reset value may be a static default value (e.g. specific to the license key or a generic default value) or it may be variable value such as a random value.

The user credentials may, at least in some embodiments, comprise a username or an email address. While in prior art systems in which the end user client communicates directly with the software provider it is possible for a username or password to be used, these would generally aid the software provider in tracing the activities of a user. However, as the user is provided with a token-based license in accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the use of such types of user credentials (i.e. personally identifying credentials) without compromising the user's anonymity, because these credentials are not passed to the software provider. Moreover, as outlined above, the user's credentials may be used in order to set a license password when generating the cryptographic token. The user credentials may additionally or alternatively comprise a password, passcode, and/or passphrase.

If the user credentials do not match any entry in the approved set of set of user credentials, the verification logic may, at least in some embodiments, be arranged to send an error message to the end user client. This error message may request that the user makes a further attempt to access the software license distribution system.

In some embodiments, the requesting end user client is a hardware device. However, in an alternative set of embodiments, the requesting end user client is a software application. It will be appreciated that the one or more end user clients may all be hardware devices, all be software applications, or may be a mix of these.

The end user client could communicate with the software license distribution system directly, however in some embodiments the interface comprises an application programming interface (API). The end user client may make an ‘API call’ in order to request authentication of supplied user credentials and request access to software from the software provider. This may advantageously allow the software license distribution system of the present invention to be used with a variety of different applications which may make use of the API in order to request licenses.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1is a block diagram of a prior art software license distribution system500. In particular,FIG. 1provides a high level illustration of the typical way a user501accessing a service provided by a vendor502, i.e. the software provider.

In the system500ofFIG. 1, a user501sends an access request503to the vendor502with user credentials which, in this particular example, include a unique identifier e.g. email, phone number, username etc. together with some form of password.

The vendor502validates the authentication details and grants the access request504. Once the vendor502has validated the authentication details and granted the request, the user501is provided with access the service505.

However, in this case, the vendor502is able to track the activities of the user501because the vendor is able to trace the service usage of the user501based on the details sent in the access request503(e.g. the email address or username of the user501).

FIG. 2a block diagram of a networked computer system510including a software license distribution system512in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As can be seen inFIG. 2, in the system510ofFIG. 2, the user511accesses the service provided by the vendor513using the software license distribution system512, referred to hereinafter as a ‘dynamic user licensing allocation system’512, where these terms are interchangeable.

Initially, the user511sends an access request514to the dynamic user licensing allocation system512with authentication details which includes a unique identifier e.g. email, phone number, username etc. together with some form of password. Thus in the system510of the present invention, the authentication details are not sent to the vendor513itself.

The dynamic user licensing allocation system512validates the authentication details and maps the user to a license. The dynamic user licensing allocation system512then sends an access request515that comprises encrypted details to the vendor513. Importantly, the encrypted details do not allow the vendor513to trace back the access to a user or a person, but rather only to this particular session. The vendor then grants the access516which then the dynamic user licensing allocation system512confirms the access grant517to the user511, who can then access the service518. Further explanation of the manner in which licenses are allocated is provided with reference toFIGS. 3 to 7below.

FIG. 3is a schematic representation of the architecture of a networked computer system100that includes a dynamic user licensing allocation system108in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

Initially, the user requests authentication access to the software provided by the vendor105, using user credentials106. The dynamic rules engine102, which includes a verification logic115and a decision logic116, is arranged such that the verification logic115receives and identifies the user credentials106and sends a verification request107to an authentication database103.

If the user is successfully authenticated by the authentication database103, the decision logic116of the dynamic rules engine102will identify an unallocated license key from the available pool of vendor license keys if there is one available in the pool that it has access to.

The identified license key is encoded in a unique token by the dynamic rules engine102and is mapped to user client in authentication database103, in a manner described in further detail below with reference toFIG. 7. The unique token is sent109to the client101, where the client101then sends an authenticate request110to the service104.

Conversely, if no unallocated license keys exist in the authentication database103, the decision logic116of the dynamic rules engine102requests112a new license key from the vendor105and encodes the license in a unique token which the dynamic rules engine102maps to user credentials114in the authentication database103. The unique token including this new license key is sent109to the client101, where the client101then sends an authenticate request110to the service104.

When the user account expires or it becomes inactive, the associated license key is released and returned to the available pool of licenses for reallocation.

FIG. 4shows a detailed communication flow between systems to negotiate a dynamic user license allocation in a networked computer system200including a dynamic user license allocation system218in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.FIG. 5is a logical data flow diagram illustrating the negotiation of the dynamic user license allocation process.

When the user initiates300an access request to the client201, the client sends302an access request209to the dynamic rules engine202, which includes a verification logic219and a decision logic220. The verification logic219of the dynamic rules engine202validates304the user access details by comparing the user credential(s) to the database203via a database query210on the user authentication table206(i.e. a stored list of authorised credentials).

If the user credential(s) are not successfully verified, the dynamic rules engine304sends an error message306to the client201informing them that they have supplied invalid credentials308.

Following successful user authentication, the decision logic220of the dynamic rules engine202looks up vendor licenses available310,312via a database query211on the vendor licenses table207of the database203.

If there are unallocated software licenses available in the vendor licenses table207, the decision logic220of the dynamic rules engine202will allocate314an available license to the user via a database update query212in the user-license mapping table208.

Conversely, if there are no vendor licenses available in vendor licenses table207, the decision logic220of the dynamic rules engine202requests316a new vendor license213from the vendor205. Once supplied318by the vendor205, the new license details214are stored in the vendor licenses table207via an insert query211, and then the new license is allocated314to the user in the database203via a database update query212in the user-license mapping table208of the database203.

Regardless of whether an existing or new license key is used, the allocation314of the license involves the creation of a cryptographic token comprising the allocated license key, as described in further detail with reference toFIG. 7.

The dynamic rules engine responds to the client201with the license details215. The client201then uses 320 these license details215to send an access request216for the service204, and the service204is granted access217to the service204upon validation of the license, ending322the allocation process.

Once a client session to the service201terminates or expires, the dynamic rules engine202updates the user-license mapping table208and the vendor licenses table207to mark the vendor license as being available again.

FIGS. 6A and 6Billustrate the benefits associated with a software license distribution system provided by embodiments of the present invention. Specifically,FIG. 6Ashows a prior art license allocation scheme, whileFIG. 6Bshows a dynamic user license allocation scheme in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

The block401represents a prior art ‘one-to-one’ license allocation process which is known in the art per se. In this block401, the relationship between a pipeline426and a license pool427throughout the license allocation process at different stages in time is shown.

At an initial time403, user 1409already has access to the service, and is allocated license A410. Subsequently, at time404, a further user, user 2411, requires access to the service. At time405, a new license, license B412is allocated to user 2412. After some time, at time406, user 1409terminates its service session, leaving license A410unallocated.

At time407a new user, user 3413, requires access to the service and subsequently, at time408, a new license, license C414is allocated to user 3413.

As outlined above,FIG. 6Bshows a dynamic user license allocation scheme in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. The block402represents the dynamic user allocation process. In this block402, the relationship between a pipeline428and a license pool429throughout the license allocation process at different stages in time is shown.

Initially at time415, user 1421already has access to the service, and is allocated license A422. At time416a second user, user 2423, requires access to the service, and as there are no available (i.e. unallocated) licenses, a new license, license B424is acquired as outlined above with reference toFIGS. 4 and 5, and this new license B424is allocated to user 2423at time417.

At time418, user 1 terminates its service session, leaving license A422unallocated. When, at time419, user 3425requires access to the service, this available unallocated license, license A422, is allocated to user 3425at time420.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that while in the one-to-one license allocation process ofFIG. 6Athe system had to acquire three licenses in order to provide the service to three users, the dynamic user allocation process ofFIG. 6Brequires only two licenses to offer the service to the same three users in the exemplary scenario described. Moreover, the vendor in the dynamic user allocation process ofFIG. 6Bis unable to determine the identity of any of the users with access to the service, and is also unable to tell whether the license A has been re-allocated to the original user (i.e. user 1) or to a new user (i.e. user 3) due to the tokenisation of the license, as described in further detail below with reference toFIG. 7.

FIG. 7illustrates how the tokenization of user credentials ensures that user anonymity is maintained such that the vendor cannot identify the user.

Initially, the user601requests access with their personal username and personal password. The dynamic user licensing allocation system encrypts the user's username using a private key to generate a new license password602. The dynamic user licensing allocation system then checks for available license keys603.

Each license key is typically a string of characters, e.g. a random sequence of alphanumeric characters and/or other symbols. Associated with each license key is a license password, that must be provided to the vendor by a user in order to prove that the user is authorised to use that license. When the dynamic user licensing allocation system allocates a license to a particular user, the system sets the license password to a value generated cryptographically, typically by encrypting the user's credentials (e.g. their personal username or personal email address supplied as the user credentials, or at least part of the user credentials) with a private key. The license password can be set to this generated password, and the license can then be provided to the user together with this newly generated license password so as to allow the user to access the software service provided by the vendor.

If there are license keys available613, the dynamic user licensing allocation system will set the license password associated with an available license to the newly generated license password602and allocate that license key to the user606. However, if there are no license keys available614, the dynamic user licensing allocation system generates a new random license key with the vendor604and sets the license password to match the newly generated license password602. The dynamic user licensing allocation system then allocates the new license key to the user606. The next time the user tries to access the service, the user enters their personal email and password, and the dynamic user licensing allocation system will map the user to the allocated license key and associated license password and pass those to the vendor (i.e. it passes only the license key and license password, not the user's personal email or personal password). Thus even if the vendor is able to determine the identity of a specific device it is communicating with, the vendor cannot identify the user using the service or track it to any specific person using that device. The license key and license password pair are a cryptographic token that may be passed to the user to provide access to the software service.

The dynamic user licensing allocation system thus authorises the user to the vendor, but then ‘sits out’ of further communications, and thus is unable to monitor user data usage patterns and also cannot see the exchanged data itself, providing further privacy benefits for the user.

When the user no longer has a need for the license and the license is returned to the pool, the dynamic user licensing allocation can reset the password to some other value, e.g. a random value or a default value, until the license is needed again, e.g. by the same user or by a different user, at which time the license password can be changed once more to a user-specific password generated from the user's credentials as outlined above.

When generating the license password, a salt (e.g. a random or pseudorandom string) may be appended to the user's credential (e.g. the username or email address used to generate the license password) prior to encryption with the private key such that the license password generated for a given user is different each time, further ensuring that the vendor cannot glean information regarding a user's identity by observing the same license password multiple times.

Thus it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention provide an improved software license distribution system in which, because the licenses are distributed as a session-specific token, the software provider does not have any knowledge of which specific users have access to the software, improving the anonymity of the users. Similarly, the software license distribution system does not have any knowledge of the usage pattern or the actual data of the user. Thus, advantageously, no single party is able to link the user's identity with the user's usage data or patterns, yielding improvements in the privacy of the license distribution compared with conventional systems known in the art per se.

While specific embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described in detail are not limiting on the scope of the claimed invention.