Facilitating group access control to data objects in peer-to-peer overlay networks

摘要

Methods and apparatuses are provided for facilitating group access controls in peer-to-peer or other similar overlay networks. A group administrator may create a group in the overlay network and may assign peer-specific certificates to each member of the group for indicating membership in the group. A group member peer node can access data objects in the overlay network using its respective peer-specific certificate to authenticate itself as a group member. The authentication is performed by another peer node in the network. The validating peer node can authenticate that the group member is the rightful possessor of the peer-specific certificate using a public key associated with the peer node to which the peer-specific certificate was issued. The validating peer node can also validate that the peer-specific certificate was properly issued to the group member using a public key of the apparatus that issued the peer-specific certificate.

主权项

1. A group administrator peer node, comprising:
a communications interface adapted to facilitate communication on a peer-to-peer overlay network; a storage medium including a private key and public key pair associated with the group administrator peer node; and a processing circuit coupled to the communications interface and the storage medium, the processing circuit adapted to:
create a peer group, the group defining one or more peer nodes as members of the group;assign a peer-specific certificate to a group member peer node that is a member of the group, the peer-specific certificate adapted to authenticate membership in the group to other peer nodes in the peer-to-peer overlay network and including a group identity, an identity of the group member peer node, a public key associated with the group member peer node, an identity of an issuing apparatus and a signature by a private key of the issuing apparatus over one or more components of the peer-specific certificate; andobtain a group token adapted to authenticate to other peer nodes in the peer-to-peer overlay network that the group administrator peer node is authorized to issue the peer-specific group certificate to the group member peer node.