Patent ID: 7657928

Claim:
A communication processing apparatus comprising: a central processing unit to execute communication processes via a network; a communication unit configured to implement a communication process related to an authentication process according to a predetermined authentication method, the communication process being performed in order to acquire secret information permitted to be disclosed only to devices in a local network corresponding to said predetermined authentication method; unique identification information of a communication destination device in said communication process is acquired by data processing at a network layer or lower of an open system interconnection (OSI) reference model; unique identification information of an authentication partner device is acquired in an extended authentication sequence of said predetermined authentication method upon execution of a process command at an application layer of the OSI reference model, the application layer process command being provided within a packet of the authentication process that is processed at the network layer or lower of the OSI reference model; said acquired unique identification information of said communication destination device is compared with said acquired unique identification information of said authentication partner device; and based upon a successful match resulting from the compared unique information, a process is executed to judge whether said authentication partner device is a device connected to the same local network as a local network to which a local device being a communication source device is connected; wherein said unique identification information received from said communication destination device is a node unique ID defined in IEEE 1394 standards; and wherein said communication processing apparatus is configured to receive, as said unique identification information received from said communication destination device, identification information acquired from a PHY communication unit of said communication destination device and identification information acquired by a network communication unit of said communication destination device, and compare said identification information acquired from the PHY communication unit of said communication destination device and the identification information acquired by the network communication destination device.