Patent ID: 7353384

Claim:
A computer program storage medium encoding a computer program for executing on a computer system a computer process for generating a computed credential for establishing a communications link between a first node (N i ) and a second node (N k ) in a computing system, wherein the computing system includes at least the first node (N i ), the second node (N k ), and a third node (N i ), the computer process comprising: receiving a first credential for establishing a communications link between the third node (N j ) and the first node (N i ), wherein the first credential includes (p i r j 2 ) e mod N, wherein e is a public exponent, N is a public modulus, p i is a random prime number associated with the first node (N i ) and privately stored by a security manager, and r j is a random prime number associated with the third node (N j ) and privately stored by the security manager, such that N −1/3e <p i, r j <N −1/3 ; receiving a second credential for establishing a communications link between the third node (N j ) and the second node (N k ); receiving a chaining parameter associated with the third node (N j ); computing the computed credential for establishing the communications link between the first node (N i ) and the second node (N k ) based on the first credential, the second credential, and the chaining parameter; and sending the computed credential to the first node (N i ) to allow the first node (N i ) to access the second node (N k ).