Patent ID: 8301895

Claim:
A method for enabling endpoint peer identification of at least one of two endpoint peers in a communication session, the method performed by an intermediary to forward communications exchanged between the two endpoint peers, the method comprising: generating an intermediary stamp, the intermediary timestamp comprising a nonce; adding the intermediary stamp to a first message originating from an endpoint peer to generate an amended first message wherein the first message originating from the endpoint peer is the first to be exchanged between the two endpoint peers when establishing a corresponding communication session between the two endpoint peers; transmitting the amended first message on a communication path for the communication session; receiving a message originating from the first of the two endpoint peers, the message comprising the intermediary stamp and a signature identification for the first of the two endpoint peers, the signature identification comprising a hash of data that includes the intermediary stamp, the signature identification having been computed by the first of the two endpoint peers; authenticating an identity of the first of the two endpoint peers using the signature identification for the first of the two endpoint peers and certificate information for the first of the two endpoint peers; identifying the first of the two endpoint peers using the certificate information for the first of the two endpoint peers; correlating one or more identity based rules with the identity of the first of the two endpoint peers; receiving a data message originating from the first of the two endpoint peers comprising data traffic; determining that the data message originating from the first of the two endpoint peers comprising data traffic is a data packet transmitted for the communication session between the two endpoint peers and that the data packet was transmitted by an identified endpoint peer; and applying at least one of the one or more identity based rules to the processing of the data packet.