Certificate reissuance for checking the status of a certificate in financial transactions
A system for using a certificate authority to first provide a customer with a digital certificate, and then having a relying party that receives that digital certificate access a status authority (the certificate authority or its designated agent) to receive a reissued certificate on that certificate. The reissued certificate has a much shorter validity period, which ensures that the information is timely. Moreover, the certificate may serve as a receipt, including an accumulated record of the signatures (digital certificates) and policy applied throughout the financial transaction. As a result, each transfer of the transaction forms a digitally-signed chain of evidence recording each step of the transaction and policy applied thereto, whereby risk may be assumed and charged for appropriately and in accordance with the risk purchaser's policy.
1. In a networking environment in which an end entity such as a customer desires to enter into an electronic transaction with a relying party such as a merchant, a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for implementing at one or more operating environments of the network a method for permitting the relying party to check the status of a certificate of authority previously issued by a certificate authority to the end entity before the relying party enters into the desired electronic transaction requested by the end entity, the method comprising:
receiving at a relying party's computing system a first transaction request sent from the end entity's computing system, the first transaction request being associated with a first certificate previously issued by a certificate authority's computing system, the first certificate having a representation of an issuer name associated with the certificate authority and a subject name associated with the end entity;
the relying party thereafter communicating with either the certificate authority or an agent of the certificate authority to query for current status information on the first certificate; and
in response to the query, receiving at the relying party's computing system a second certificate from either the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent, the second certificate indicating the current status of the first certificate, and the second certificate having a representation of an issuer name that is associated with either the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent, and the subject name associated with the end entity.
2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises transmitting from the relying party back to the end entity a transaction receipt comprising information that includes the second certificate.
3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the information including the second certificate is transmitted to the end entity along with a response to the first transaction request.
4. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the information including the second certificate is transmitted to the end entity along with at least one digital signature.
5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises transmitting the first certificate and the second certificate to a new relying party along with a second transaction request.
6. In a networking environment in which and end entity such as a customer desires to enter into an electronic transaction with a relying party such as a merchant, a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for implementing at one or more operating environments of the network a method for permitting the relying party to check the status of a certificate of authority previously issued by a certificate authority to the end entity before the relying party enters into the desired electronic transaction requested by the end entity, the method comprising:
receiving at a computing system for the certificate authority or an agent of the certificate authority a query from a relying party's computing system for current status information on a first certificate previously issued by the certificate authority to an end entity, the first certificate having a representation of an issuer name associated with the certificate authority and a subject name associated with the end entity; and
in response to the query, issuing from the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent a second certificate to the relying party indicating the current status of the first certificate, and the second certificate having a representation of an issuer name that is associated with either the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent, and the subject name associated with the end entity.
7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the second certificate comprises one or more data fields, one of which is a field for designating the second certificate as being an indication of the current status of the first certificate.
8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the second certificate further comprises a data field for containing policy information.
9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the second certificate further includes a data field for containing information regarding evidence submitted to satisfy a policy of the relying party.
10. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the second certificate comprises one or more data fields, one of which contains policy-related information that qualifies the second certificate.
11. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the second certificate comprises one or more data fields, one of which contains success or failure information regarding the second certificate.
12. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the second certificate comprises one or more data fields, one of which contains information regarding a validity period of the second certificate.
13. In a networking environment in which an end entity such as a customer desires to enter into an electronic transaction with a relying party such as a merchant, a method for permitting the relying party to check the status of a certificate of authority previously issued by a certificate authority to the end entity before the relying party enters into the desired electronic transaction requested by the end entity, the method comprising:
receiving at a relying party's computing system a first transaction request sent from the end entity's computing system, the first transaction request being associated with a first certificate previously issued by a certificate authority's computing system, the first certificate having a representation of an issuer name associated with the certificate authority and a subject name associated with the end entity;
the relying party thereafter communicating with either the certificate authority or an agent of the certificate authority to query for current status information on the first certificate; and
in response to the query, receiving at the relying party's computing system a second certificate from either the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent, the second certificate indicating the current status of the first certificate, and the second certificate having a representation of an issuer name that is associated with either the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent, and the subject name associated with the end entity.
14. In a networking environment in which and end entity such as a customer desires to enter into an electronic transaction with a relying party such as a merchant, a method for permitting the relying party to check the status of a certificate of authority previously issued by a certificate authority to the end entity before the relying party enters into the desired electronic transaction requested by the end entity, the method comprising:
receiving at a computing system for the certificate authority or an agent of the certificate authority a query from a relying party's computing system for current status information on a first certificate previously issued by the certificate authority to an end entity, the first certificate having a representation of an issuer name associated with the certificate authority and a subject name associated with the end entity; and
in response to the query, issuing from the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent a second certificate to the relying party indicating the current status of the first certificate, and the second certificate having a representation of an issuer name that is associated with either the certificate authority or the certificate authority's agent, and the subject name associated with the end entity.