Patent ID: 8375424

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing a secret to a local domain controller: receiving, at a hub domain controller, a request for a secret from a local domain controller; providing the secret to the local domain controller; storing the secret in a cache at the local domain controller; and linking the secret stored at the hub domain controller to the secret cached at the local domain controller using: a forward link at the local domain controller representing a list of secrets that have been received by the local domain controller, and a backward link at the hub domain controller representing a list of domain controllers that have received the secret; wherein linking the secret using the forward link further comprises updating a domain controller object for a history list at the hub domain controller in order to show when the secret was revealed to a given user at which local domain controller; and wherein updating the domain controller object further comprises updating the secret's metadata; and wherein a metadata identifier is then used to form a unique key that keeps the history list entry unique for each update to the secret for each version and for each user.