Patent ID: 8281386

Claim:
A method for automatic secret generation and distribution for secure systems, the method being implemented by an authentication program on a network authenticator, the method comprising: establishing a secure communication channel with an embedded; receiving valid security credentials from the embedded device; determining whether the security credentials have previously been provided to the network authenticator; closing the secure communication channel with the embedded device when it is determined that the security credentials have previously been provided to the network authenticator more than once; receiving from the embedded device via the secure communication channel either a secret for the embedded device or a request to generate the secret for the embedded device only when it is determined that the security credentials have not previously been provided to the network authenticator, wherein the secret enables authentication of the embedded device to other devices within a secure system; generating the secret and transmitting the secret to the embedded device when the network authenticator receives the request to generate the secret; receiving device identification from the embedded device, wherein the device identification is received after the secret has been received by the network authenticator or after the secret has been generated by the network authenticator and transmitted to the embedded device; registering the secret for the embedded device using the device identification for the embedded device; and ending communication with the embedded device.