Physical access control
View Patent ↗A system and method are disclosed for controlling physical access through a digital certificate validation process that works with standard certificate formats and that enables a certifying authority (CA) to prove the validity status of each certificate C at any time interval (e.g., every day, hour, or minute) starting with C's issue date, D 1 . C's time granularity may be specified within the certificate itself, unless it is the same for all certificates. For example, all certificates may have a one-day granularity with each certificate expires 365 days after issuance. Given certain initial inputs provided by the CA, a one-way hash function is utilized to compute values of a specified byte size that are included on the digital certificate and to compute other values that are kept secret and used in the validation process.
1. A method for controlling access to at least one disconnected door that is communicatively disconnected from authorities and databases, comprising:
causing an entity to produce at least one digital signature for a plurality of time intervals of a sequence of dates, wherein the at least one digital signature indicates that at least one user can access the disconnected door during each time interval;
causing a first card of a first user to receive the at least one digital signature during each time interval that is provided from the first card to the disconnected door in order to pass through the disconnected door;
after the first user presents the first card with the at least one digital signature to the disconnected door, causing the disconnected door to open after verifying that: (i) the at least one digital signature is a digital signature of the entity indicating that the first user can access the disconnected door at each time interval, and (ii) that a current time is within each time interval, wherein the disconnected door remains unopened in response to at least one of: the at least one digital signature being invalid and the current time not being within each time interval;
providing information indicating access attempts by other users at the disconnected door to the first card independently of whether the door is caused to open, wherein providing information indicating access attempts by other users at the disconnected door to the first card includes the disconnected door locally storing the access information in a memory associated with the disconnected door; and
transferring the information indicating access attempts by other users at the disconnected door from the first card to a database that is disconnected from the door.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disconnected door has a card reader coupled with an electromechanical lock, and wherein the first user presents the at least one digital signature to the disconnected door by having the first card of the first user read by the card reader.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the entity further causes the at least one digital signature to be received by the first card of the first user during each time interval by posting the at least one digital signature into the database accessible by the first user.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one digital signature is a public-key signature, and wherein the disconnected door stores the public-key of the entity in the memory associated with the disconnected door.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disconnected door stores, on the first card of the first user, the access information that corresponds to the access attempt by the first user.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing information indicating access attempts by other users at the disconnected door further includes transmitting the access information to the database disconnected from the door via a device other than the first card of the first user.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database disconnected from the door further receives the information indicating access attempts by other users from a second card presented at the disconnected door.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second card that is presented at the disconnected door belongs to a second user and is different from the first card of the first user.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a processor associated with the disconnected door also verifies identity information about the first user.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the identity information about the first user includes at least one of: a PIN and the answer to a challenge of the disconnected door.
11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, containing software that controls access to at least one disconnected door that is communicatively disconnected from authorities and databases, the software comprising:
executable code causes an entity to produce at least one digital signature for a plurality of time intervals of a sequence of dates, wherein the at least one digital signature indicates that at least one user can access the disconnected door during each time interval;
executable code that causes a first card of a first user to receive the at least one digital signature during each time interval that is provided from the first card to the disconnected door in order to pass through the disconnected door;
executable code that causes the disconnected door to open after the first user presents the first card with the at least one digital signature to the disconnected door and after verifying that: (i) the at least one digital signature is a digital signature of the entity indicating that the first user can access the disconnected door at each time interval, and (ii) that a current time is within each time interval, wherein the disconnected door remains unopened in response to at least one of: the at least one digital signature being invalid and the current time not being within each time interval;
executable code that provides information indicating access attempts by other users at the disconnected door to the first card independently of whether the door is caused to open, wherein information indicating access attempts by other users at the disconnected door is provided to the first card by the disconnected door locally storing the access information in a memory associated with the disconnected door; and
executable code that transfers the information indicating access attempts by other users at the disconnected door from the first card to a database that is disconnected from the door.
12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the at least one digital signature is a public-key signature, and wherein the disconnected door stores the public-key of the entity in the memory associated with the disconnected door.
13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the database disconnected from the door further receives the information indicating access attempts by other users from a second card presented at the disconnected door.
14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the second card presented at the disconnected door belongs to a second user and is different from the first card of the first user.