Patent ID: 7757086

Claim:
A system for enabling authenticated communication between a first entity and at least one other entity, the system including a second entity and a processor, wherein: the first entity and the second entity share transport keys; and the second entity includes at least one variant authentication key configured to be transported from the second entity to the first entity using the transport keys under control of the processor, the variant authentication key being a variant key of a base authentication key included in the at least one other entity generated by applying a one way function to the base authentication key and a first bit-pattern stored in the at least one other entity and being usable to enable the authenticated communication by the first entity with the at least one other entity, the first entity being configured to use common signature generation using the transport keys to receive the variant authentication key from the second entity, wherein the first entity and the second entity have the same identifier which is used to generate the variant authentication key.