Techniques for authentication via a mobile device
View Patent ↗Techniques for authentication via a mobile device are provided. A mobile device is pre-registered for website authentication services. A user encounters a website displaying an embedded code as an image alongside a normal login process for that website. The image is identified by the mobile device, encrypted and signed by the mobile device and sent to a proxy. The proxy authenticates the code and associates it with the website. Credentials for the user are provided to the website to automatically authenticate the user for access to the website bypassing the normal login process associated with the website.
1. A method implemented in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and processed by one or more processors or a proxy device and configured to perform the method, comprising:
preregistering, by the proxy device, a mobile device of a user for resource authentication;
acquiring, by the proxy device, an encrypted and signed code sent from the mobile device;
authenticating, by the proxy device, the encrypted and signed code;
associating, by the proxy device, a decrypted version of the encrypted and signed code with a specific resource; and
performing authentication, at the direction of the proxy device, for the user to have authenticated access to the specific resource by authenticating the user to a pre-existing login process of the specific resource with user credentials known to the specific resource, and wherein the proxy device processing as a transparent proxy to the user and processing as a reverse proxy to the specific resource and wherein the specific resource is unaware of the reverse proxy and the encrypted and signed code sent to the proxy device by the mobile device;
wherein performing further includes identifying a website session between the user and the specific resource via the decrypted version and acquiring credentials for the user via an identity service to supply the credentials to the specific resource on behalf of the user to initiate an authenticated version of the website session between the user and the specific resource on behalf of the user and without user interaction.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein preregistering further includes downloading and initiating a mobile application to the mobile device that communicates with the method.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein initiating further includes providing a private key to the mobile application that is for encrypting and signing the encrypted and signed code and the private key securely maintained and managed on the mobile application.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein initiating further includes receiving from the mobile application a public key that is for decrypting and authenticating the encrypted and signed code.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein preregistering further includes acquiring credentials for authenticating the user to the specific resource via a user interacting with the mobile application.
6. The method of claim 2 , wherein preregistering further includes acquiring a reference to an identity service that can supply credentials on behalf of the user for authenticating to the specific resource, the user supplying the reference via the mobile application.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein acquiring further includes acquiring the encrypted and signed code after a mobile application on the mobile device, using a camera device of the mobile device, scans a barcode or Quick Response (QR) code presented as an image alongside a login screen for access to the specific resource.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein acquiring further includes generating and inserting the barcode or QR code into a website page for the login screen before or when the user navigates to the website page using a different device from that which is associated with the mobile device.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein acquiring further includes acquiring the encrypted and signed code after a mobile application on the mobile device detects an embedded barcode or Quick Response (QR) code in a website page that the user navigates to using a browser of the mobile device.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein authenticating further includes checking a variety of factors against a policy once the encrypted and signed code is decrypted and validated to confirm authentication.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein associating further includes mapping the decrypted version with an identifier for the specific resource, the identifier recorded with the decrypted version when the method initially generated a barcode or Quick Response (QR) code for a website page of the specific resource and the mobile device used the barcode or quick response code to produce the encrypted and signed code that is sent back to the method.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying further includes performing the authentication on behalf of the user without the specific resource being aware of the method.