System and Method for Exchanging Cryptographic Capabilities

摘要

In some data communication configurations, data received from a sender may need to be viewed or otherwise processed by more than one entity with a corresponding client. For example, a message sent to a corporate email address may be viewed by either or both a mobile device and a desktop device. For the sender to utilize the strongest algorithm or protocol used by the recipient, it would therefore need to know which algorithms or protocols are supported by both the mobile and desktop mail clients. A system and method are provided to enable the mobile device to know about the capabilities of related mail clients associated with the communication address (e.g. email address) and vice versa such that the intersection of the capabilities (i.e. the strongest algorithm or protocol supported by all parties involved) can be chosen and the messages or data cryptographically processed accordingly.

主权项

1. A method for providing cryptographic protocol capabilities, the method comprising:
a sending device operated by a first correspondent in a data communication system determining a first set of protocol capabilities corresponding to its local cryptographic protocol capabilities; the sending device obtaining at least one additional set of protocols corresponding to at least one other device operated by the first correspondent, at least one of the first and second sets of protocol capabilities being obtained by communicably connecting the sending device to an intermediate server; the sending device preparing data to be sent to a recipient correspondent in the data communication system, and including in the data, an indication of protocols supported by the sending device and the at least one other device to thereby indicate to the recipient, one or more protocols that can be handled by both the sending device and the at least one other device when the recipient device communicates with the first correspondent.