JP2000057097A - Image processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To keep the security of a service to be provided without damaging operability on the side of an external device by automatically determining the validity of certification corresponding to the characteristics (environment or performance) of the external device to access an image processor for providing the image processing service. SOLUTION: Concerning this image processor, when a processing request from the external device is accepted (S11), information related to the issue source of that processing request is acquired (S13) and certification is performed based on the acquired information (S15). At such a time the validity of that certification is determined and corresponding to the acquired information, the length of validity to be determined is changed (S18). When that certification is valid, only within the validity, prescribed processing corresponding to the accepted processing request is executed (S20).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is used in a networked environment, and provides an image processing service such as provision of various information including image information and an image print service to other devices on the network. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus that authenticates a request source in providing an image processing service.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an image processing apparatus such as a file sharing server or a print server that provides an image processing service, the provision of the service is restricted to only a specific user or the usage rate of the service is adjusted ( In some cases, an authentication process for a use request is performed in order to make adjustments. For example, WWW (World), which is known to provide services of providing various information including image information using hypertext and the like.
Wide Web) servers are designed to identify users by performing authentication processing to prevent unauthorized access.

In such an image processing apparatus, in particular, a WWW server, an information encoding method and an information transmission method with a terminal device (hereinafter, referred to as a user terminal) operated by a user when performing an authentication process. BASIC authentication, which determines whether or not information can be browsed by exchanging user's personal information (for example, operator name and password), or BAS
In many cases, MD5 authentication or the like that encrypts personal information to be transmitted and received is used in addition to IC authentication.

In recent years, in order to further improve the security of information to be provided, BASIC authentication and MD
Different from general authentication processing such as 5 authentication, some authentication processing is performed according to a unique method. For example, JP-A-9-
No. 146824 discloses that when a user terminal successfully accesses a WWW server for the first time (in this case, BASIC authentication, MD5 authentication, or the like), a specific URL (Uniforum) is used.
m Resource Locator) is notified to the user terminal as an authentication identifier with an expiration date, and when the user terminal uses the authentication identifier at the next access, the WWW server sends the authentication identifier and the expiration date of the authentication identifier. It is disclosed to determine whether information can be browsed based on the information. According to this authentication method, since the expiration date is set for the authentication identifier, the accessible period by the authentication identifier is limited, and even if the authentication identifier is leaked, unauthorized access is effectively prevented. become able to.

[0005]

In the above-mentioned prior art, the security of information to be provided is further improved by setting an expiration date on the result of the authentication process. That is, the period during which the user once authenticated can continuously view the information is set uniformly regardless of the environmental conditions between the WWW server and the user terminal. For example, even if the access is from a user terminal existing on the same network as the WWW server, the access is from a user terminal on a different network from the WWW server or from an external user terminal via a public telephone network. Even so, their expiration dates are the same.

In other words, the expiration date for the result of the authentication process is the same for both the user terminal (or the user) with a low possibility of unauthorized access and the user terminal (or the user) with a high possibility of unauthorized access. Will be set to Therefore, in order to effectively prevent unauthorized access, it is conceivable to set a short validity period.

However, if the expiration date for the result of the authentication process is shortened, even if the user terminal (or the user) who has been properly authenticated continues to browse the information, the BASIC authentication corresponding to the first access is performed. It often requires transmission of personal information for MD5 authentication or the like. Therefore, the processing efficiency is reduced on the user terminal side, and the operability is impaired.
It may be very troublesome for the user. On the other hand, operability on the user terminal side can be improved by extending the expiration date for the result of the authentication process, but in this case, the user terminal (or the user terminal with a high possibility of unauthorized access) This allows the user (user) to view information for a long period of time, which may result in lower security.

Accordingly, the present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for providing an image processing service such as information browsing to a user specified by an authentication process, wherein the characteristics (environment, performance, etc.) of each user terminal accessing the image processing apparatus are provided. The present invention aims to provide an image processing apparatus that can secure the security of a provided service without impairing the operability on the user terminal side by automatically determining the validity period of the authentication according to (1). And

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus devised to achieve the above object, a processing means for executing predetermined processing, and a processing request from an external device to the processing means. Request accepting means for accepting the request, information acquiring means for acquiring information on the external device from which the processing request is issued when the request accepting means accepts the processing request, and request accepting based on the information acquired by the information acquiring means An authentication means for determining whether or not to cause the processing means to execute a process according to the processing request received by the means; a validity period for the determination by the authentication means; and a determination in accordance with the information obtained by the information obtaining means. Period determining means for changing the length of the effective period to be provided.

According to the image processing apparatus having the above configuration, when the request receiving unit receives a processing request from an external device, the authentication unit determines whether or not to cause the processing unit to execute a process based on the processing request. However, at this time, the period determining unit determines the valid period of the determination by the authentication unit and changes the length of the valid period to be determined according to the information on the external device acquired by the information acquiring unit. Therefore, in this image processing apparatus, for example, it is possible to lengthen the validity period for authentication for a processing request from a certain external device and shorten the validity period for authentication from another external device. That is, it is possible to weight the authentication according to the source of the processing request.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, here,
An example in which the present invention is applied to a WWW server that provides a service of providing various information including image information will be described.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a procedure of an authentication process in a WWW server to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a WWW server performing the authentication process.

As shown in FIG. 2, a WWW server 1 according to the present embodiment is, for example, a T
CP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet
(Protocol) connected to a network 2 and provides various information providing services in response to processing requests from user terminals (not shown) existing on the network 2.

A user terminal existing on the network 2 comprises a personal computer (PC), a workstation (WS) or the like which can operate a WWW browser.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Prot.
ocol) /1.0, requests the WWW server 1 to provide hypertext, image information, etc., and displays the provided various information on a display for user browsing. Is what you do.

In order to provide such an information providing service to a user terminal, the WWW server 1 includes a network interface 3 and a CPU (Central Processing Unit).
4, ROM (Read Only Memory) 5, and RAM (Rand
om Access Memory) 6 and a hard disk drive (hereinafter referred to as
The system includes an HDD 7, a system clock 8, and a system bus 9 connecting these components to each other.

The network interface 3 is for connecting to the network 2 and for performing communication and control based on TCP / IP and HTTP / 1.0. The network interface 3 may be connected to each of the plurality of networks 2 at the same time.

The CPU 4 controls the operation of the WWW server 1 as a whole. More specifically, it performs processing necessary for realizing an information providing service, such as information transmission processing to a user terminal and authentication processing including a calculation processing of an expiration date described in detail below.

The ROM 5 stores a control program required for operation control by the CPU 4 in advance. The control program stored in the ROM 5 includes, for example, a program for the CPU 4 to transmit various information to the user terminal via the network interface 3 according to the protocol HTTP / 1.0. The RAM 6 is used as a work area of the CPU 4 and stores program control variables, data for various processes, and the like.

The HDD 7 is a nonvolatile storage device having a large capacity, and stores various information including image information to be provided to the user terminal. In addition, the HDD 7 additionally stores user data to be referred to when the CPU 4 performs the authentication process, and authentication expiration date data to be referred to when determining whether to execute a processing request from the user terminal. ,
Is stored. The HDD 7 may be composed of another storage device as long as it is non-volatile.

Here, the user data and the authentication expiration date data stored in the HDD 7 will be described in more detail.

As shown in FIG. 3, the user data includes an "operator name" for identifying the user and a "password" individually given to each user. This is information tabulated for each user who can authorize. That is, the user data corresponds to personal information about the user who can be authenticated by the CPU 4. It is assumed that the user data is stored in the HDD 7 in advance by the operation of the administrator of the WWW server 1 or the like.

As shown in FIG. 4, the authentication term data includes an "operator name" for identifying a user and an "IP (Internet P.I.)" assigned to a user terminal operated by the user.
The “rotocol) address” and the “authentication expiration date” indicating the expiration date for the result of the authentication process are tabulated as in the case of the user data. However, unlike the user data, this authentication term data is registered or deleted according to an instruction from the CPU 4.

In FIG. 2, a system clock 8 is constituted by a clock chip, and is for notifying the CPU 4 of time information (year, month, day, hour, minute, second, etc.). The system clock 8 is provided with a backup battery so that time information does not disappear when the system power is turned off or when a power failure occurs, and it is assumed that the current time is always measured.

Next, an example of the operation in the case where the WWW server 1 configured as described above performs an authentication process in response to a processing request from a user terminal will be described. However, here, a case where the WWW server 1 uses BASIC authentication as an information encoding method and an information transmission method with a user terminal will be described as an example.

First, a basic procedure of BASIC authentication in the WWW server 1 will be described. FIG. 5 shows a state in which the WWW server 1 performs the BASIC authentication.
FIG. 3 is a diagram simply showing data transfer between a WWW server 1 and a user terminal.

When requesting the WWW server 1 to provide information, the user terminal transmits a URL indicating the requested information to the WWW server 1 and makes a request for information provision (see FIG. 3). . Specifically, a data sequence as shown in FIG. 6 is transmitted to request information provision.

On the other hand, when the WWW server 1 receives the URL from the user terminal, it determines whether the information requested by the URL requires authentication,
If the authentication is necessary, a message to that effect and data on parameters required for the authentication are returned to the user terminal (FIG. 5).
Inside). Specifically, a data string (response code 401) as shown in FIG. 7 is returned.

On the other hand, on the user terminal side, WWW
According to the parameters in the data received from the server 1, the personal information (operator name and password) of the user is notified to the WWW server 1 (see FIG. 5). Specifically, a data string as shown in FIG. 8 is notified.

After receiving the personal information from the user terminal side, the WWW server 1 stores the personal information in the HD.
The authentication of the user on the user terminal side is performed by comparing with the user data in D7. At this time, if the personal information matches the user data, the WWW server 1 determines that the user is permitted to browse the information, and transmits the information requested by the URL to the user terminal (FIG. 5). reference). Specifically, a data string (response code 200) as shown in FIG. 9 is transmitted. If the personal information and the user data do not match, the WWW server 1 determines to reject information browsing by the user, and notifies the user terminal of the refusal (see FIG. 5). . Specifically, FIG.
(Response code 403; meaning that the server understands the request but refuses to execute it).

Note that, between the WWW server 1 and the user terminal, if the information requested from the user terminal does not require authentication or has already been authenticated, the data notification in FIG. Shall not be performed.

Next, the detailed procedure of the authentication process performed by the WWW server 1 using the above-described BASIC authentication, that is, the procedure of the authentication process which is a feature of the present invention, is described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This will be described in detail. Note that the authentication process described below is performed by WWW
It is assumed that the process is repeated from the time when the power to the server 1 is turned on. Also, here, description will be given on the assumption that all information provided from the WWW server 1 to the user terminal requires authentication.

As shown in the figure, when the WWW server 1 is put into an operable state due to power-on or the like, the WWW server 1 enters a state of waiting for an information provision request from that point. When a predetermined time (for example, one second) elapses in this state, the WWW server 1
The PU 4 determines whether there is an information provision request (step 1).
1. Hereinafter, step is abbreviated as S). That is, the CPU 4
Determines whether a request for information provision has been received from a user terminal via the network interface 3.

Here, if no request is received,
The CPU 4 compares the current time information notified from the system clock 8 with the “authentication expiration date” of each entry (each row in the table in FIG. 4) of the authentication expiration date data stored in the HDD 7. It is determined whether there is an “authentication expiration date” for which the time information has passed. And
If there is an “authentication expiration date” that has already passed, the entry including the “authentication expiration date” is deleted from the HDD 7 (S12). Thereafter, the CPU 4 is again in a state of waiting for an information provision request, and the above-described steps (S11 to S12).
repeat.

However, when an information provision request is received from the user terminal (corresponding to FIG. 5, see the data sequence in FIG. 6), the CPU 4 identifies the user who issued the request by “operator”. A name and a “IP address” that can be obtained during TCP / IP communication and are assigned to a user terminal operated by the user are extracted from the received request and obtained (S1).
3), these are temporarily stored in a predetermined area in the RAM 6.

From the information provision request, "operator name" and "I
After acquiring the "P address", the CPU 4
Each entry of the authentication expiration data stored in D7 is searched, and the “operator name” temporarily stored in the RAM 6 is searched.
It is checked whether an entry matching the “IP address” already exists in the authentication expiration date data (S1).
4).

At this time, if an entry exists in the authentication expiration date data, the entry is not deleted in the above-described step (S12), and the authentication for the combination of the user and the user terminal is valid. Since it is within the time limit, the CPU 4 transmits the requested information to HTTP / 1.3 without performing authentication processing again (corresponding to, in FIG. 5).
Network interface 3 while following 0 protocol
(S20: FIG. 5)
(Corresponding to the middle, see the data sequence in FIG. 9)

However, if the entry does not exist in the authentication expiration date data, the authentication processing has not been performed yet for the combination of the user and the user terminal, or the expiration date has passed. After performing the above-described BASIC authentication (corresponding to, in FIG. 5, see the data sequence in FIGS. 7 and 8) with the user terminal (S15), whether information can be provided to the user terminal is determined. ,
That is, it is determined whether the authentication is successful (S16).

As a result of the determination, if the authentication is not successful, the information provision is rejected, and the CPU 4 notifies the user terminal, which has requested the information provision, that the authentication has failed. (S17). Specifically, the response code 403 is described in the response data to be transmitted to the user terminal (see the data string in FIG. 10), and a notification according to HTTP / 1.0 is performed (corresponding to the one in FIG. 5).

On the other hand, if the authentication is successful, the CPU 4
Determines the expiration date for the result of the authentication process (S18).

Here, the determination of the expiration date by the CPU 4 will be described in detail with reference to the explanatory diagram of FIG.

The expiration date determined by the CPU 4 is the HDD 7
This is equivalent to the “authentication expiration date” of the authentication expiration date data stored in the, and is calculated by a predetermined calculation described below. In other words, the expiration date is calculated by the sum of the time information at the time of successful authentication notified from the system clock 8 and the expiration period, as shown in equation (1) in the figure. Here, the term of validity is, as shown in equation (2) in the figure, a maximum validity term set in advance to a predetermined value, and "I" of a user terminal which is a request source of information provision as described later.
It is calculated by the product of the validity coefficient determined according to the “P address”. The maximum validity period is, for example, 1 day = 24 as shown in equation (3) in the figure.
It is conceivable to set such as time = 1440 minutes.

In the WWW server 1, "IP addresses" are assigned according to the number of networks 2 to which the network interface 3 is connected. For example, if the network interface 3 is connected to three networks 2, the WWW server 1 sends “129.249.010.001” and “129.249.021.
011 "and" 128.212.041.008 "
P address ”.

As described above, the “IP address” is specifically composed of a total of 12 digits (or a character string), of which the upper three digits have different values for each country. Each WWW has a different digit value for each company (organization), the next three digits have different values for each subnetwork (area), and the lower three digits have different values for each device.
It is individually attached to the server or user terminal.

From this, the CPU 4 compares the “IP address” assigned to the WWW server 1 with the “IP address” of the user terminal from which the information provision request is issued.
Recognizing how many digits match between them,
The value of the effective period coefficient is determined by judging the environmental conditions between each of them according to the recognition result. For example,
The CPU 4 determines that the user terminal that issued the request is in an environment closer to the WWW server 1 and increases the value of the validity factor as the number of digits that match between the respective “IP addresses” increases. To decide. However, "IP address"
The correspondence between the number of digits that match and the value of the validity period coefficient is C
It is assumed that the data is registered in a predetermined area or the like in the HDD 7 in a table format in advance so that the PU 4 can refer to the data.

That is, the CPU 4 executes the previous step (FIG. 1).
"I" acquired in S13) and stored in the RAM 6
After determining the value of the validity period coefficient by comparing the "P address" with the "IP address" of the WWW server 1, the validity period is calculated from the validity period coefficient and the maximum validity period which is a predetermined value, and furthermore, the validity period is calculated. By adding the period to the time information obtained from the system clock 8, the expiration date for the result of the authentication processing is determined.

After determining the expiration date of the authentication result in this way, the CPU 4 sets the expiration date to "authentication expiration date" and updates the authentication expiration date data in the HDD 7 as shown in FIG. S19). That is, the CPU 4
Sets the determined expiration date as the “authentication expiration date”, extracts the corresponding “operator name” and “IP address” from the RAM 6 and sets them as a set of entries. Is added to the end of the table in the HDD 7 in which the authentication term data is registered.

Thereafter, the CPU 4 determines that the authentication is successful and determines the expiration date of the authentication result. (S20; corresponding to FIG. 5, see data string in FIG. 9).

As described above, in the WWW server 1 of the present embodiment, when performing the authentication process, the request source “I
The CPU 4 changes the length of the expiration date according to the “P address”. Thereby, for example, WWW
The weight of the authentication is weighted according to the request source, such as increasing the expiration date for a user terminal in an environment close to the server 1 and shortening the expiration date for a user terminal in an environment far from the WWW server 1. It is possible to do. Therefore, according to the WWW server 1, for example, security of a user terminal in a distant environment is ensured, while deterioration of processing efficiency and operability of a user terminal in a near environment is prevented. Will be able to
In other words, by automatically determining the authentication expiration date according to the characteristics (environment, performance, etc.) of each user terminal, and denying access from the user terminal after the authentication expiration date, it is possible to prevent unauthorized access and prevent users Both improvement of operability on the terminal side can be realized.

In the WWW server 1 according to the present embodiment, if the user is within the authentication period, the user is permitted to browse the information without performing another authentication process. Is determined based on the “operator name” and the “IP address”. In other words, in order to determine whether the authentication for the combination of the user and the user terminal is within the validity period, for example, even if the user terminal has been authenticated once, the authentication process is performed again when a third party uses it. Is required. Therefore, according to the WWW server 1, based on the “operator name” and the “IP address”, the characteristics (environment, performance, user who operates the terminal, etc.) of the information request source can be accurately determined. By determining whether or not the authentication process is necessary based on these, security is ensured.

Further, in the WWW server 1 of the present embodiment, when there is access from the user terminal after the expiration of the authentication expiration date, the fact is notified to the user terminal. The user can easily recognize that re-authentication is necessary, which is very convenient for the user.

In the present embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a WWW server that provides various information providing services has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and is not limited to a network. As long as an image processing service is provided to the user terminal of the present invention, an image processing apparatus such as a file sharing server or a print server can be applied.

Also, in the present embodiment, the case where the CPU 4 changes the length of the expiration date according to the “IP address” of the user terminal has been described as an example. Other information may be used as long as it is information that can specify the information and performance.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the case where the CPU 4 changes the length of the expiration date by using a pre-registered expiration factor has been described as an example. May be arbitrarily selected or set by the administrator of the WWW server 1 or the like.
In this case, the setting according to the network environment where the WWW server 1 is installed can be performed, and the versatility is extremely high.

Further, in the present embodiment, a case has been described in which whether or not an entry exists in the authentication expiration date data is determined based on the “operator name” and the “IP address”. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the judgment is made based on only one of the “operator name” and the “IP address”, or the judgment is made based on information other than those for identifying the user terminal (or the user). Is also feasible.

[0054]

As described above, the image processing apparatus according to the present invention changes the length of the valid period to be determined according to the external device from which the processing request is issued. It is possible to weight the authentication according to the issuer of the processing request. Therefore, according to this image processing apparatus, for example, while security is maintained for an external apparatus under environmental conditions far from the image processing apparatus, processing efficiency and operability are improved for external apparatuses under close environmental conditions. Deterioration can be prevented. That is, by automatically determining the authentication expiration date in accordance with the characteristics (environment, performance, etc.) of the processing request issuer, the authentication request is provided without impairing the operability on the external device side that is the process request issuer. This has the effect of ensuring service security.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure when an authentication process is performed by an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a WWW server to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of user data used when performing an authentication process.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of authentication expiration date data used when performing authentication processing.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of data transfer between a WWW server and a user terminal when BASIC authentication is performed.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of exchanged data when an information request is made according to the HTTP protocol.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of exchanged data at the time of information response (at the time of authentication required) according to the HTTP protocol.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of exchanged data when notifying personal information by the HTTP protocol.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of exchanged data at the time of information response (at the time of successful authentication) by the HTTP protocol.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of exchanged data at the time of information response (when authentication fails) according to the HTTP protocol.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a calculation method when determining an expiration date for a result of an authentication process.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... WWW server (image processing apparatus), 2 ... network, 3 ... network interface, 4 ... CPU, 5
... ROM, 6 ... RAM, 7 ... Hard disk drive (HD
D), 8 ... System clock

Claims (4)

[Claims] A processing unit that executes a predetermined process; a request receiving unit that receives a processing request from an external device for the processing unit; and a request source that issues the processing request when the request receiving unit receives the processing request. An information acquisition unit that acquires information about an external device; and an authentication unit that determines whether to cause the processing unit to execute a process based on the processing request received by the request reception unit based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit. An image processing apparatus comprising: a period determining unit that determines a valid period of the determination by the authentication unit and changes a length of the valid period to be determined according to the information acquired by the information acquiring unit. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information acquired by the information acquisition unit is address information for identifying the external device. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information acquired by the information acquiring unit is an operator name for identifying an operator who operates the external device. 4. When the processing request is received by the request receiving means after the expiration of the validity period determined by the period determining means, the request is sent to the external device which is the source of the processing request. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising communication control means for notifying.