Patent ID: 7581243

Claim:
A secure communication method performed in a system including a terminal device and an authentication server, the terminal device having at least one service process supplying a service to other terminal devices and a user authentication process performing authentication of a user, which processes run on the terminal device, the authentication server having an encryption key of the service process registered therein in advance, the secure communication method comprising: obtaining, from the user at the terminal device, a user identification and a password for the user; transmitting, from the terminal device to the authentication server, a request for an access ticket including the user identification and identification of a selected service process which is one of the at least one service process; upon receipt of the request for the access ticket, generating, at the authentication server, a random number, and a first secret key generated using the random number and the user identification, the generation of the first secret key being performed independently of the user authentication process performed at the terminal device; generating, at the authentication server, the access ticket including at least the first secret key and access control information; encrypting, at the authentication server, the access ticket with the encryption key of the selected service process; transmitting, from the authentication server to the selected service process on the terminal device, the encrypted access ticket and the random number; generating, by the user authentication process at the terminal device, a second secret key generated using the random number and the password of the user; encrypting, by the authentication process, processing information indicating a processing request issued to the selected service process using the second secret key; providing, by the authentication process in the terminal device to the selected service process, the encrypted processing information and the encrypted access ticket; decrypting, using the encryption key of the selected service process, by the selected service process, the encrypted access ticket provided by the authentication process; and decrypting using the first secret key included in the decrypted access ticket, by the selected service process, the encrypted processing information provided by the authentication process; and determining, by the selected service process, whether authentication by the authentication process is successful based on whether decryption for the encrypted processing information by the selected service process was successful, wherein, upon successful authentication by the authentication process, the processing request indicated by the decrypted processing information is handled by the selected service process based on the access control information included in the decrypted access ticket.