JP2000031958A - Method for authenticating mobile agent - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain an authentication procedure that guards a system from an illegal agent. SOLUTION: In the mobile agent system consisting of a mobile agent that moves among plurality of receiver side systems in a network 100 and a transmitter side system that generates the mobile agent and transmits it to the network, the mobile agent 3 has a temporary public key Kpo, the transmitter side 1 of the mobile agent 3 has a temporary secret key Kso and a secret key Ks, the receiver side 2 has a public key Kp of the transmitter side 1 and the receiver side 2 transmits a message encrypted by the public key Kp at the reception of the mobile agent. Then the mobile agent 3 uses the temporary public key Kpo to encrypt the message in duplicate by using the temporary public key Kpo and transmits the resulting message to the transmitter side 1, the transmitter side 1 decodes the message by using the secret key Ks and the temporary secret key Kso, encrypts the message again by using the temporary secret key Kso and gives the message to the mobile agent 3. The mobile agent 3 decodes the message that is encrypted again and gives the decoded message to the receiver side 2, and the receiver side 2 collates it with the original message.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a technology for authenticating a mobile agent, which is a program for moving a plurality of systems in a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional remote programming includes, for example, a first computer system 300A, a second computer system 300B,... As shown in FIG.
And the like are connected via the network 356, the process executed on the first computer system 300A as the client process 352 is as follows:
A remote program is created in the server process 354 executed on the second computer system 300B,
The instruction list is sent (35).
8) Then, the remote program from the client process 352 is executed by the server process 354, the execution repo is received (362), and the process is terminated. However, there is a problem of efficiency in the network. In order to improve this, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-182
No. 174, as a "method of performing remote programming" of a computer network, defines a plurality of object-oriented classes including an agent class and a place class, and includes a computer process including an object-oriented class, a subclass of the object-oriented class, and a go operation. A method for forming an instruction (instruction) has been proposed.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a method for implementing remote programming.
The place 220A and the agent 150A are executed. Agent 150A occupies place 220A. On the other hand, the computer system 120B is executing the place 220B. (Note that the fact that an agent or place occupies a particular place means that the agent or place is running in the computer that contains that particular place.) Sends instructions to the system, the processors in the network interpret, and agent 150A is responsive to the instructions, for example, to place 220B (specified in the instructions). This instruction is called "go", and in particular, the execution of the operation "go" by the agent 150A. When the operation “go” is performed by the agent 150A,
(1) The agent 150 in the system 120A
A execution is stopped, and (2) the agent 150A
Is encoded in a standardized form that stores the execution state,
(3) The standardized form of the agent 150A is transferred to the computer system 120B, (4), the agent 150A including the stored execution state is decoded from the standardized form, and (5) the computer system 12
Within 0B, execution of agent 150A is resumed. After operation "go" has been performed by agent 150A, agent 150A no longer occupies place 220A and is no longer running on computer system 120A, as shown in FIG. Agent 15 instead
OA occupies place 220B and is running in computer system 120B. In this way, the agent can move freely and efficiently to a remote system during execution of the agent. In addition, a mobile agent as a program that freely moves in a network can be moved and executed even in a computer system having a different operating system and hardware.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, in the case of a mobile agent system in which a program moves in a network, it is necessary to prevent a receiving system from executing a request of an improper agent with a false identity. Has the problem that the receiving system must know the identity of the mobile agent. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile agent authentication method that can execute only a request of a legitimate agent without executing a request of an unauthorized agent with a false identity.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 1 provides a mobile agent which moves a plurality of receiving systems in a network, and a transmission agent which generates the mobile agent and sends it out to the network. In the mobile agent system comprising the receiving system, the mobile agent has a temporary public key, the transmitting system of the mobile agent has a temporary private key and a private key, and the receiving system has a public key of the originating system. The mobile agent is authenticated by using an arbitrary message generated by the receiving side system, the temporary public / private key pair, and the public / private key pair. The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the mobile agent retains the public key corresponding to the secret key of the transmitting system and does not have the public key in advance, and moves to the receiving system. The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the receiving system holds a list of public keys of the transmitting system of the mobile agent that is permitted to execute. Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the receiving side system obtains a public key corresponding to a secret key of the transmitting side system from outside when the mobile agent moves. Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the receiving system generates an arbitrary authentication message when receiving the mobile agent, encrypts the message with the public key, and passes it to the mobile agent. After being double-encrypted with a temporary public key and passed to the transmitting system, the transmitting system decrypts the authentication message with the temporary secret key and the secret key, and then decrypts the authentication message with the temporary The mobile agent decrypts the authentication message with the temporary public key and passes it to the receiving system, and the receiving system transmits the authentication message to the receiving system. The mobile agent is authenticated by comparing it with an authentication message to be stored. That.

According to the above configuration, the transmitting system holds the secret key and the temporary secret key, the mobile agent holds the temporary public key, and the receiving system holds the public key of the transmitting system. So, for example, when the receiving system authenticates the mobile agent, it generates an arbitrary message for mobile agent authentication, encrypts it with the public key it holds, and passes it to the mobile agent. The authentication message is further double-encrypted with the temporary public key and passed to the sending system.The sending system decrypts the message using the secret key holding the passed authentication message and the temporary secret key, and then temporarily The mobile agent decrypts the authentication message with the temporary public key and sends it to the receiving system. Te, the receiving system can confirm the identity of the mobile agent if matching the original message that holds the authentication message received.
Alternatively, the public key for the transmitting system's private key is
Since the receiving system does not hold the information in advance, it can be carried by the mobile agent and the receiving system can be received from the mobile agent and used. Alternatively, the receiving side system may not have a public key in advance, but may obtain and use the system from the system held in the network when receiving the mobile agent.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a mobile agent authentication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a transmission-side system authentication unit shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the receiving-side system authentication unit shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the authentication unit of the mobile agent shown in FIG. The configuration of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes a typical extranet including the Internet 100 as an external network, an organization A101 having an internal network, and an organization B102 related to the organization A101 and having an internal network. 1 is a transmitting side authenticating section for performing authentication of a transmitting side system, 2 is a receiving side authenticating section for performing authentication of a receiving side system, and 3 is a mobile agent authenticating section for performing authentication of a mobile agent.

In FIG. 2, a transmitting-side system authentication unit 1
Receives a message from a temporary key generating unit 11 for generating a temporary public key and a secret key, a temporary key holding unit 12 for holding a temporary private key generated by the temporary key generating unit 11, and a mobile agent 3. Message receiving means 1
3. Message transmitting means 14 for transmitting a message to the mobile agent 3, message decrypting means 15 for decrypting the transmitted message, message encrypting means 16 for encrypting the message, secret key retaining means 17 for retaining a secret key , An agent generating means 18 for generating an agent, and an agent transmitting means 19 for transmitting the generated agent. In FIG.
The receiving-side system authentication unit 2 includes an agent communication unit 21 that has a conversation with the mobile agent 3,
Message generating means 22 for generating an arbitrary authentication message transmitted to the transmission-side system authentication section 1 via the communication section, and encrypting the authentication message generated by the message generation means 22 with the public key of the reception-side system authentication section. Message encrypting means 23, message holding means 2 for holding the message generated by message generating means 22
4. a message comparing means 25 for comparing the message held by the message holding means 24 with an external message.

In FIG. 4, the authentication unit 3 of the mobile agent includes a temporary key holding unit 31 for holding the temporary public key generated by the temporary key generating unit 11, and a receiving side via the agent communication unit 21 and the agent communication unit 36. Message encryption means 32 for encrypting the authentication message sent from the system authentication unit 2 with the temporary public key, message decryption means 33 for decrypting the message sent from the transmission side system authentication unit with the temporary public key, transmission It has a message transmitting means 34 and a message receiving means 35 for exchanging with the message receiving means 13 and the message transmitting means 14 of the side system authenticating section 1.
Is the authentication unit of the mobile agent in which the user's request is generated and written in the system where the user exists. Although not specifically shown, the means for operating / controlling the mobile agent and realizing the user's request includes all of the transmitting system 1, the receiving system 2, and the mobile agent 3. .

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 13, reference numeral 1 denotes a transmitting system authentication unit, 2 denotes a receiving system authentication unit, and 3 denotes a mobile agent authentication unit. Each circled number is a number of each unit shown in FIGS. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmission procedure of a mobile agent by the transmission-side system authentication unit shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a message generation procedure of the receiving side system authentication unit shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a message double encryption procedure in the mobile agent shown in FIG. FIG. 8 shows FIG.
7 is a diagram showing a procedure for transmitting the double encrypted message shown in FIG. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a procedure for decrypting and re-encrypting the message shown in FIG. 8 in the transmitting-side system authentication unit. FIG. 10 shows a procedure for transmitting the re-encrypted message shown in FIG. 9 to the mobile agent. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a procedure for decrypting the re-encrypted message shown in FIG. 10 in the mobile agent.
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a procedure for transmitting the decrypted message shown in FIG. 11 to the receiving-side system authentication unit. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a collation procedure of the decrypted message in the receiving system authentication unit.

Hereinafter, the agent authentication procedure will be described step by step with reference to FIGS. First, as shown in FIG. 5, a temporary public key Kpo and a temporary secret key Kso are generated by the temporary key generation means 11 in the transmission-side system authentication unit 1. Then, the mobile agent 3 generated by the agent generating means 18 stores the temporary public key Kpo in the temporary key holding means 31.
Is transmitted to the receiving side system 2 by the agent transmitting means 19. Further, the temporary secret key Kso is stored by the temporary key holding unit 12.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, when the transmitted mobile agent 3 is received by the receiving system authentication unit 2, the message generating means 22 of the receiving system authentication unit 2
, An arbitrary message M is generated and stored by the message holding unit 24, and is also encrypted by the message encryption unit 23 using the public key Kp corresponding to the secret key Ks of the transmission side system, and the agent communication unit 2
Sent to 1. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 7, the encrypted message Mc is passed to the mobile agent 3 via the agent communication means 21 and the agent communication means 36 of the mobile agent 3, and the temporary key holding means 31 is stored inside the mobile agent 3. Is further double-encrypted by the message encryption means 32 using the temporary public key Kpo stored in
The message is sent to the message sending means 34. Next, as shown in FIG. 8, the double-encrypted message Mcc is passed to the transmission-side system authentication unit 1 via the message transmission unit 34 and the message reception unit 13. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 9, the message Mcc passed to the transmitting-side system authentication unit 1 is decrypted by the message decrypting means 15 using the temporary secret key Kso stored in the temporary key holding means 12, and Decrypted by the secret key Ks stored in the secret key holding means 17. At this point, the message Mcc becomes the message M generated by the message generating means 22 of the receiving system authentication unit 2. The message M is encrypted again by the message encrypting unit 16 using the temporary secret key Kso stored in the temporary key holding unit 12 and sent to the message transmitting unit 14. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 10, the re-encrypted message Mc is sent to the mobile agent 3. As shown in FIG. 11, the message Mc is decrypted inside the mobile agent 3 into a message M and passed to the receiving-side system authentication unit 2 as shown in FIG. Finally, as shown in FIG. 13, the message M passed to the receiving-side system authentication unit 2 is compared in the message comparing unit 25 with the message M stored in the message holding unit 24. As a result of the comparison, if they match, it can be said that the mobile agent 3 has definitely been sent from the transmitting system 1. If they do not match, the mobile agent 3 is an unknown mobile agent, so the receiving system authentication unit 2 rejects and disposes of the mobile agent 3. In this way, reliable authentication is possible. Note that the public key Kp may be possessed by the receiving system from the beginning or may be obtained from an external organization such as a certificate authority when the mobile agent comes. Alternatively, it may be in a form carried by a mobile agent. The temporary keys Kpo and Kso are deleted when the mobile agent itself or a notification of death of the mobile agent is received from the receiving system. However, even if the death notification is not received, the mobile agent is deleted when the life of the mobile agent expires.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a mobile agent system including a mobile agent that moves through a plurality of receiving systems in a network and a transmitting system that generates and sends the mobile agent to the network, the mobile agent sends a temporary public key to the transmitting agent of the mobile agent. The system has a temporary private and private key, the receiving system has the transmitting system's public key, and any messages generated by the receiving system and the temporary public / private key pair, public / private key pair. Since the mobile agent is authenticated by the message communication between the transmitting and receiving systems and the mobile agent, the mobile agent can be quickly and accurately authenticated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a mobile agent authentication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a transmitting-side system authentication unit shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a receiving-side system authentication unit shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an authentication unit of the mobile agent shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a procedure for transmitting a mobile agent by a transmitting-side system authentication unit shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a message generation procedure of the receiving-side system authentication unit shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a message double encryption procedure in the mobile agent shown in FIG. 4;

8 is a diagram showing a procedure for transmitting the double encrypted message shown in FIG. 7 to the transmitting system.

9 is a diagram showing a decryption and re-encryption procedure in the transmission side system of the duplicated encrypted message shown in FIG.

10 is a diagram showing a procedure for transmitting the re-encrypted message shown in FIG. 9 to the mobile agent.

11 is a diagram showing a decryption procedure in the mobile agent of the re-encrypted message shown in FIG.

12 is a diagram showing a procedure for transmitting the decryption message shown in FIG. 11 to the receiving-side system authentication unit.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a collation procedure of the decrypted message shown in FIG.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of conventional remote programming.

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram of a conventional remote programming implementation method.

16 is an explanatory diagram of the mobile agent shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transmission-side system authentication part 2 Reception-side system authentication part 3 Authentication part of mobile agent 11 Temporary key generation means 12 Temporary key holding means 13 Message receiving means 14 Message transmission means 15 Message decryption means 16 Message encryption means 17 Private key holding means DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 18 Agent generation means 19 Agent transmission means 21 Agent communication means 22 Message generation means 23 Message encryption means 24 Message holding means 25 Message comparison means 31 Temporary key holding means 32 Message encryption means 33 Message decryption means 34 Message transmission means 35 Message reception Means 36 Agent communication means 100 Internet 101 Organization A 102 Organization B

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04L 9/08 H04L 9/00 601C 9/14 601F 641

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A mobile agent system comprising: a mobile agent that moves through a plurality of receiving systems in a network; and a transmitting system that generates a mobile agent and sends it out to the network, wherein the mobile agent has a temporary public key; The transmitting system of the mobile agent has a temporary private key and a private key, the receiving system has a public key of the transmitting system, and any message generated by the receiving system and the temporary public / private A mobile agent authentication method, wherein the mobile agent is authenticated by using a key pair and the public / private key pair. 2. The mobile agent authentication according to claim 1, wherein the mobile agent holds the public key corresponding to the secret key of the transmission side system and moves to the reception side system without holding the public key in advance. Method. 3. The mobile agent authentication method according to claim 1, wherein said receiving side system holds a list of public keys of said transmitting side systems of said mobile agents which are permitted to execute. 4. The mobile agent authentication method according to claim 2, wherein the receiving system acquires a public key corresponding to a secret key of the transmitting system from outside when the mobile agent moves. 5. The receiving system generates an arbitrary authentication message when receiving a mobile agent, encrypts the message with the public key, and passes it to the mobile agent. The mobile agent converts the authentication message using the temporary public key. The encryption system is double-encrypted and passed to the transmission side system, and the transmission side system decrypts the authentication message with the temporary secret key and the secret key, and then decrypts the authentication message again with the temporary secret key. Encrypted and sent to the mobile agent, the mobile agent decrypts the authentication message with the temporary public key and passes it to the receiving system, and the receiving system stores the authentication message with the authentication message. 2. The mobile communication device according to claim 1, wherein the mobile agent is authenticated by collation. Client authentication method.