System and method for efficiently enrolling, registering, and authenticating with multiple authentication devices

摘要

A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for multi-device operations within an authentication framework. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: detecting N authentication devices on a client, wherein N>1; generating a N cryptographic entities, one for each of the N authentication devices; transmitting a command to the client to register each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the N authentication devices; executing the command on the client and responsively registering each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the respective N authentication devices; and subsequently using at least one of the authentication devices and its associated cryptographic entity for authenticating a user of the client over a network.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
detecting N authentication devices on a client, wherein N >1; generating N cryptographic entities, one for each of the N authentication devices; transmitting a single command from a server to the client to register each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the N authentication devices and a first random challenge from the server to the client; determining N privacy classes, one for each of the N authentication devices, wherein the privacy class is defined based on a risk that a client information associated with the corresponding authentication device uniquely identifies a user or client device; executing the command on the client and responsively registering each of the N cryptographic entities into each of the respective N authentication devices on the client; automatically detecting, at the client, that the first random challenge is no longer valid based on a timeout period associated with the first random challenge; responsively transmitting a request for a new random challenge from the client to the server, wherein transmitting is performed without user intervention; generating a new random challenge at the server and transmitting the new random challenge to the client; transmitting the new random challenge back to the server with a single notification that all of the N authentication devices are registered, wherein the server verifies that the new random challenge received is the same as the new random challenge transmitted; and subsequently using at least one of the authentication devices and its associated cryptographic entity for authenticating a user of the client with the server or a different server over a network, wherein the at least one authentication device used for authenticating a user of the client is based on its corresponding privacy class.