Patent ID: 7975138

Claim:
A method for enabling a coordinator hosted by a first application server to exchange transaction coordination messages over one or more insecure connections with a sub-coordinator hosted by a second application server, for use in performing a transaction, the method comprising: (a) generating a coordinator token by the coordinator at the first application server; (b) sending, over one or more secure connections, the coordinator token to the sub-coordinator at the second application server; (c) generating a sub-coordinator token by the sub-coordinator at the second application server; (d) receiving, at the coordinator on the first application server, over the one or more secure connections, the sub-coordinator token from the sub-coordinator; (e) generating, by the coordinator using the sub-coordinator token, a first digital signature based on a transaction coordination request message; (f) sending, by the coordinator over one or more insecure connections, the transaction coordination request message and the first digital signature to the sub-coordinator, whereby the first digital signature enables the sub-coordinator to authenticate the transaction coordination request message; (g) receiving, at the coordinator, over the one or more insecure connections, a transaction coordination reply message and a second digital signature from the sub-coordinator, wherein the transaction coordination reply message and the second digital signature are received after the transaction coordination request message is authenticated by the sub-coordinator; (h) regenerating the second digital signature, by the coordinator using one of the coordinator token and the sub-coordinator token, based on the transaction coordination reply message; and (i) determining, by the coordinator, that the second digital signature and the regenerated second digital signature match, and authenticating the transaction coordination reply message.