JP7476738B2 - Information processing device and information processing program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device and an information processing program.

Conventionally, authentication processing using an authenticator has been proposed as an authentication process in which a service authenticates a user. Specifically, an authenticator corresponding to a service is registered in advance, and when a user uses the service, the service authenticates the user by performing authentication processing using the authenticator.

Patent document 1 discloses an information processing device that requests a first authenticator to perform authentication processing when it receives an authentication request from a service providing system, and requests a second authenticator, different from the first authenticator, to perform authentication processing if a predetermined condition is satisfied after the authentication processing is requested from the first authenticator.

JP 2019-101504 A

Now, consider the case where one user registers for multiple services that use an authenticator to perform user authentication processing. In this case, multiple authenticators will be prepared to receive authentication from each of the multiple services, but these multiple authenticators may be different from each other. In such a case, when the user wants to use a certain service, he or she may not know which authenticator to use for authentication processing.

The object of the present invention is to enable a user to know which authenticator is required for authentication processing for the services available to the user when different authenticators need to be used for authentication processing for each of the services.

The invention of claim 1 is an information processing device comprising a processor, which relays authentication data related to the authentication process between an authentication device that executes authentication processing of a user for a service and an authentication device corresponding to the service required for the authentication process, and notifies the user of the authentication device corresponding to the service available to the user based on authenticator correspondence information in which a user ID that identifies the user, a service ID that identifies the service, and an authenticator ID that identifies the authenticator are associated with each other, and multiple pairs of service IDs and authenticator IDs are associated with one user ID, and the user ID of the user.
The invention of claim 2 is the information processing device described in claim 1, characterized in that the processor notifies the user of the authentication device corresponding to the user ID and the service ID based on the authentication device compatibility information, as well as the user ID and the service ID of the user.
The invention of claim 3 is an information processing device as described in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, when the user is authenticated by the information processing device, the processor notifies the user of the authentication device corresponding to the service used by the user.
The invention of claim 4 is an information processing device described in any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the processor executes service-related processing involving the use of the service in response to instructions from the user authenticated by the information processing device.
The invention of claim 5 is the information processing device described in claim 4, characterized in that the processor forms an authentication status of the user to the information processing device when the user is authenticated to the service.
The invention of claim 6 is an information processing device as described in claim 5, characterized in that when the authentication strength of authentication to the service is equal to or greater than the authentication strength of authentication to the information processing device, the processor forms an authentication status of the user to the information processing device on the basis that the user has been authenticated to the service.
The invention of claim 7 is an information processing device as described in claim 4, characterized in that the processor is capable of executing a plurality of service-attached processes involving the use of different services, and a plurality of buttons corresponding to the plurality of service-attached processes for inputting instructions to execute the service-attached processes, and the authentication device corresponding to the service used in each of the service-attached processes is displayed on the display of the information processing device in a manner that allows the user to understand.
The invention of claim 8 is an information processing device as described in claim 4 or 7, characterized in that the processor is capable of executing a first service-attached process involving the use of a first service to authenticate the user using a first authentication device, and a second service-attached process involving the use of a second service to authenticate the user using a second authentication device, and when the user inputs an instruction to execute the first service-attached process and the user performs the authentication process using the second authentication device, the processor inquires the user as to whether or not it is OK to execute the second service-attached process.
The invention of claim 9 is an information processing device as described in claim 4, 7, or 8, characterized in that the processor is capable of executing multi-service accompanying processing involving the use of multiple services that authenticate the user using different authentication devices, and when the user inputs an instruction to execute the multi-service accompanying processing and the user is authenticated by some of the multiple services, the processor executes the multi-service accompanying processing involving the use of services that have authenticated the user without the use of services that have not authenticated the user.
The invention of claim 10 is an information processing program characterized in that a computer relays authentication data related to the authentication process between an authentication device that executes authentication processing of a user for a service and an authentication device corresponding to the service necessary for the authentication process, and notifies a user of authenticator correspondence information in which a user ID that identifies the user, a service ID that identifies the service, and an authenticator ID that identifies the authenticator are associated with each other, and multiple pairs of service IDs and authenticator IDs are associated with one user ID, and notifies the user of the authenticator corresponding to the service available to the user based on the user ID of the user.

According to the invention of claim 1, 2 or 10, when it is necessary to use different authentication devices for authentication processing of a user for each of multiple services, the user can grasp the authentication device required for authentication processing for the services available to the user.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the authentication device from being notified to a person who has not been authenticated by the information processing device.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a user can cause an information processing device to execute a service-accompanying process when using a service.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the information processing device can omit the process of authenticating a user.
According to the invention of claim 6, it is possible to prevent a user from being authenticated into an information processing device through authentication processing for a service having an authentication strength lower than the authentication strength of authentication into the information processing device.
According to the invention of claim 7, a user can understand the authentication device required for authentication to each service, and then input an instruction to execute each service-related process that uses each service into an information processing device.
According to the invention of claim 8, when a user wishes to use either the first service or the second service, even if the user inputs an instruction to execute a first service-accompanying process involving the use of the first service into an information processing device, but has already performed authentication processing using a second authentication device for authentication to the second service, the user can use the second service without having to again input an instruction to execute a second service-accompanying process involving the use of the second service into the information processing device.
According to the invention of claim 9, when a user inputs an instruction to execute a multi-service associated processing into an information processing device, and all of the multiple authentication devices corresponding to the multiple services associated with the multi-service associated processing are unavailable, it is possible to use at least the service corresponding to the available authentication device.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of an authentication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of an image processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of a registration process. FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of the contents of authenticator correspondence information. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of an authentication process. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a first example of an authentication device notification screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a second example of an authentication device notification screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a first display example of a plurality of buttons respectively corresponding to a plurality of service-associated processes. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a second example of displaying a plurality of buttons each corresponding to a number of service-related processes. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an inquiry screen for a user. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an authentication system 10 according to this embodiment. The authentication system 10 includes an image processing device 12 as an information processing device according to the present invention, one or more service providing devices 14 that provide services to users (i.e., users), multiple authenticators 16, and an authentication server 18 as an authentication device. The image processing device 12, the service providing devices 14, the authenticators 16, and the authentication server 18 are communicatively connected by a communication line 20 such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet. In addition, the image processing device 12 and the authenticator 16 are communicatively connected to each other by short-range wireless communication such as BLE (Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy) or NFC (Near Field Communication), or by wire.

Details of the image processing device 12 will be described later with reference to FIG. 2 etc.

The service providing device 14 is typically composed of a server computer, but the service providing device 14 may be any device as long as it provides services to authenticated users. The service providing device 14 includes a communication interface that performs the function of communicating with other devices via the communication line 20, memory composed of a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), ROM (Read Only Memory) or RAM (Random Access Memory), and a processor composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit), etc.

As will be described in detail later, before a user uses a service provided by the service providing device 14 (hereinafter simply referred to as "service"), a registration process is executed to register the user with the service. In the registration process, information necessary for the user to be authenticated by the service through authentication process using the authenticator 16 is registered in the service providing device 14 and the authentication server 18. Through the registration process, the authenticator 16 necessary for being authenticated by the service is determined. After that, when the service authenticates the user through authentication process using the authenticator 16, the user can use the service. As will be described later, the registration process and authentication process are executed between the authenticator 16 and the authentication server 18.

In the authentication system 10 according to this embodiment, one user can register for multiple services. In other words, one user can use multiple services. The multiple services are provided by different service providing devices 14. Also, one service providing device 14 may provide multiple different services to a user.

Although not limited to this, an example of the service is a document management service that manages electronic documents. The document management service may manage the electronic documents after performing various processes on the electronic documents. When the service providing device 14 is configured as a server computer, the service is provided via the communication line 20, i.e., the service is a cloud service.

The authenticator 16 is composed of, for example, a smartphone or smartwatch on which an authentication application is installed, or a set of a USB memory and a computer capable of reading the USB memory. The authenticator 16 is used by the user when receiving authentication from a service. For each service, the authenticator 16 required to receive authentication from that service is registered in advance in the authentication server 18 by the above-mentioned registration process. Different authenticators 16 may be registered for each service. When one user can use multiple services, the user needs to prepare multiple authenticators 16 corresponding to each service, and appropriately select and use the authenticator 16 corresponding to the service in the authentication process from the service he or she wishes to use.

When a device on which an authentication application is installed is used as the authenticator 16, it is conceivable that multiple authentication applications, for example authentication application A and authentication application B, are installed on one authenticator 16. In such a case, in this specification, even if there is one authenticator 16 in terms of hardware, the device on which authentication application A is activated and the device on which authentication application B is activated are considered to be different authenticators 16. In other words, different authenticators 16 is a concept that includes not only authenticators 16 with different hardware, but also authenticators 16 with different authentication applications.

The authentication server 18 is typically composed of a server computer, but the service providing device 14 may be any device as long as it can execute the authentication process of authenticating a user using the authentication device 16. The authentication server 18 is composed of a communication interface that performs the function of communicating with other devices via the communication line 20, a memory composed of a HDD, ROM, RAM, etc., and a processor composed of a CPU, etc.

Details of the user authentication process by the authentication server 18 using the authentication device 16 will be described later.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the configuration of the image processing device 12. The image processing device 12 is, for example, a multifunction device that performs functions such as printing, scanning, copying, and electronic document transmission. As will be described in detail later, the image processing device 12 performs a process of relaying authentication data related to the authentication process in which the service authenticates the user between the authenticator 16 and the authentication server 18.

In this embodiment, an image processing device 12 is used as the information processing device according to the present invention, but the information processing device may be any device as long as it is capable of relaying authentication data and has a means of notifying the user.

The communication interface 30 is configured to include, for example, a network adapter. The communication interface 30 performs a function of communicating with other devices (for example, the service providing device 14 and the authentication server 18) via the communication line 20. The communication interface 30 also performs a function of communicating with the authentication device 16 via short-range wireless communication or wired communication.

The display 32 includes, for example, a liquid crystal panel. A screen for notifying the user of various information is displayed on the display 32 through processing by the notification processing unit 46 described below.

The input interface 34 includes, for example, a touch panel or buttons. The input interface 34 is used by the user to input various instructions to the image processing device 12.

The memory 36 includes, for example, a hard disk drive, a solid state drive (SSD), a read-only memory (ROM), or a random access memory (RAM). The memory 36 may be provided separately from the processor 40 described below, or at least a portion of the memory 36 may be provided inside the processor 40. The memory 36 stores an information processing program for operating each unit of the image processing device 12. Also, as shown in FIG. 2, the memory 36 stores authentication device compatibility information 38.

The authenticator compatibility information 38 is information that associates a user ID as a user ID that identifies a user, a service ID that identifies a service, and an authenticator ID that indicates the authenticator 16 used to authenticate the user for the service. Details of the authenticator compatibility information 38 will be explained together with the processing of the registration unit 42 described later.

The processor 40 refers to a processing device in a broad sense, and is configured to include at least one of a general-purpose processing device (such as a CPU) and a dedicated processing device (such as a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or a programmable logic device). The processor 40 may not be configured by a single processing device, but by the cooperation of multiple processing devices located in physically separate locations. As shown in FIG. 2, the processor 40 performs the functions of a registration unit 42, an authentication unit 44, a notification processing unit 46, and a processing execution unit 48 by the information processing program stored in the memory 36.

The registration unit 42 relays registration data related to the registration process for registering a user to a service between the authenticator 16 and the authentication server 18. In this embodiment, each service provided by each service providing device 14 included in the authentication system 10 authenticates a user by FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) authentication. Therefore, in the registration process, the registration data required for FIDO authentication is registered in the service providing device 14 and the authentication server 18.

The flow of the registration process in this embodiment will be explained below according to the flowchart shown in Figure 3.

In step S10, the user operates the authenticator 16 to send a registration request from the authenticator 16 to the service for which the user wishes to register (i.e., the service providing device 14). The registration request includes a service user ID that uniquely identifies the user in the service and address information of the authenticator 16.

In step S12, the service transmits to the authentication server 18 the service user ID and address information of the authenticator 16 included in the registration request received in step S10, a service ID that uniquely identifies the service, and the service name of the service. The service retains the received service user ID.

In step S14, the authentication server 18 generates information called a challenge (e.g., a randomly generated character string) and transmits the generated challenge to the image processing device 12 together with the address information, service ID, and service name received from the service in step S12. The authentication server 18 retains the service user ID received in step S12 and the generated challenge.

In step S16, when the registration unit 42 of the image processing device 12 receives the address information, service ID, service name, and challenge in step S14, it transmits the challenge to the authentication device 16 indicated by the address information. The registration unit 42 stores the received service ID and service name.

In step S18, the authentication device 16 authenticates the user using various methods. For example, the authentication device 16 authenticates the user using biometric authentication or a password. Information required for the user to authenticate with the authentication device 16 is registered in advance in the authentication device 16. When the authentication device 16 authenticates the user, the process proceeds to step S20. Note that if the authentication device 16 is unable to authenticate the user, the registration process ends without executing the processes in the subsequent steps.

In step S20, the authentication device 16 generates a public key and a private key corresponding to the public key. Note that the public key and private key can be generated by a known method, and therefore a detailed description is omitted here.

In step S22, the authenticator 16 uses the private key generated in step S20 to sign the challenge received in step S16. Specifically, the authenticator 16 assigns to the challenge a character string that can only be generated by the private key. The signed challenge is called signature data.

In step S24, the authenticator 16 transmits to the image processing device 12 the public key generated in step S20, the signature data generated in step S22, a user ID (which may be different from or the same as the above-mentioned service user ID) that uniquely identifies the user in the image processing device 12, an authenticator ID that uniquely identifies the authenticator 16, and an authenticator name. In addition to this information, the authenticator 16 preferably transmits to the image processing device 12 information indicating the authentication method of the user by the authenticator 16 in the authentication process for the service (which may be the same as the authentication method in step S18). Here, the authenticator 16 holds the private key generated in step S20 in the memory of the authenticator 16. When a set of a USB memory and a computer is used as the authenticator 16, the private key is stored in the USB memory as a FIDO security key.

In step S26, the registration unit 42 transmits the public key and signature data received in step S24 to the authentication server 18. The registration unit 42 holds the user ID, authenticator ID, and authenticator name received in step S24. If information indicating the method of authenticating the user by the authenticator 16 has been received in step S24, the registration unit 42 also holds that information.

In step S28, upon receiving the public key and signature data in step S26, the authentication server 18 verifies the signature data using the public key. If the verification confirms that the signature data has been signed with the private key corresponding to the received public key, the authentication server 18 associates the service user ID and service ID received in step S12 with the public key received in step S26 and stores them in the memory of the authentication server 18. In this specification, this information is referred to as public key information.

In step S30, the authentication server 18 sends a registration completion notification to the image processing device 12 and the service. When the service receives the registration completion notification from the authentication server 18, it registers the service user ID received in step S10 as a user who has already been registered with the service.

In step S32, the registration unit 42 stores the service ID and service name received in step S14, and the user ID, authenticator ID, and authenticator name received in step S24 in memory 36 in association with each other. This information is the authenticator compatibility information 38. When information indicating the method of authenticating a user by the authenticator 16 is held, the registration unit 42 stores this information in memory 36 in association with the service ID, user ID, and authenticator ID, including it in the authenticator compatibility information 38. Note that if the image processing device 12 can identify the service name based on the service ID in some way, the authenticator compatibility information 38 does not need to include the service name. Also, if the image processing device 12 can identify the authenticator name based on the authenticator ID in some way, the authenticator compatibility information 38 does not need to include the authenticator name.

In step S34, the registration unit 42 notifies the authentication device 16 (i.e., the user) that user registration for the service has been completed.

By carrying out the above-mentioned registration process for each service for each user, multiple combinations of user ID, service ID, service name, authenticator ID, and authenticator name (preferably also authentication method) are stored as authenticator correspondence information 38. FIG. 4 shows an example of authenticator correspondence information 38. In particular, in this embodiment, one user can use multiple services, that is, one user can register as a user for multiple services, so in the authenticator correspondence information 38, multiple combinations of service ID and authenticator ID are associated with one user ID.

The authentication unit 44 relays authentication data related to the authentication process in which the service authenticates the user (in other words, the user logs in to the service) between the authenticator 16 and the authentication server 18. In this embodiment, the authentication data is data necessary for the service to authenticate the user through FIDO authentication.

The flow of authentication processing in this embodiment will be explained below according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In step S40, the user operates the authenticator 16 to select an authenticator 16 corresponding to the service that the user wishes to use (i.e., the service providing device 14), and then transmits a login request from the authenticator 16. The login request includes a service user ID that uniquely identifies the user in the service, and address information of the authenticator 16.

In step S42, the service sends an authentication request to the authentication server 18. The authentication server 18 receives the service user ID and address information of the authenticator 16 included in the registration request received in step S10, as well as a service ID that uniquely identifies the service. The service retains the received service user ID.

In step S44, the authentication server 18 generates a challenge and transmits the generated challenge to the image processing device 12 together with the address information and service ID contained in the authentication request received from the service in step S42. The authentication server 18 retains the service user ID and service ID received in step S42, and the generated challenge.

In step S46, when the authentication unit 44 of the image processing device 12 receives the address information and the challenge in step S44, it transmits the challenge to the authentication device 16 indicated by the address information.

In step S48, the authentication device 16 authenticates the user. If the authentication device 16 authenticates the user, the process proceeds to step 50. If the authentication device 16 is unable to authenticate the user, the authentication process ends without executing the subsequent steps.

In step S50, the authenticator 16 signs the challenge received in step S46 using the private key stored in memory.

In step S52, the authenticator 16 transmits the signature data generated in step S50 to the image processing device 12.

In step S54, the authentication unit 44 transmits the signature data received in step S52 to the authentication server 18.

In step S56, the authentication server 18 refers to the public key information stored in memory and identifies the public key associated with the service user ID and service ID received in step S42. The authentication server 18 then uses the identified public key to verify the signature data received in step S54. If the verification confirms that the signature data has been signed with the private key corresponding to the public key, the authentication is successful and the process proceeds to step S56. On the other hand, if it is determined that the signature data has not been signed with the private key corresponding to the public key, the authentication fails.

If, in step S40, the user mistakenly selects an authenticator 16 that does not correspond to the service, that is, if the authenticator 16 does not correspond to the service, the signature data will be signed with a private key that does not correspond to the service. Therefore, in this case, the verification process of the authentication server 18 in step S56 determines that the signature data was not signed with a private key that corresponds to the public key, and the user cannot obtain authentication from the service.

In step S58, the authentication server 18 notifies the image processing device 12 and the service of the authentication result. When the service receives a notification of successful authentication from the authentication server 18, it treats the user indicated by the service user ID received in step S10 as an authenticated user. In other words, the service creates an authentication state for the user. On the other hand, when the service receives a notification of failed authentication from the authentication server 18, it does not create an authentication state for the user.

In step S60, the authentication unit 44 notifies the authenticator 16 (i.e., the user) that authentication for the service has been completed.

The authentication unit 44 also performs processing for the image processing device 12 to authenticate the user, in other words, for the user to log in to the image processing device 12. This processing is called device authentication processing to distinguish it from authentication processing for a service to authenticate a user. The device authentication processing can be performed by a known method, such as biometric authentication or a password. Information required for the device authentication processing is registered in advance and stored in the memory 36.

Returning to FIG. 2, the notification processing unit 46 executes a process of notifying the user of the authenticator 16 corresponding to each service available to the user based on the authenticator compatibility information 38 before the service authenticates the user through the above-mentioned authentication process.

Specifically, first, the image processing device 12 acquires the user ID of the user to be notified. Any method may be used to acquire the user ID. For example, the image processing device 12 acquires the user ID by authenticating the user through device authentication processing (i.e., the user logs in to the image processing device 12). In addition, when acquiring the user ID, the image processing device 12 does not necessarily need to authenticate the user. For example, the user ID may be acquired by a user who has not been authenticated by the image processing device 12 inputting the user ID from the input interface 34. Alternatively, the user ID may be read by a contactless reader provided in the image processing device 12 from a storage medium (e.g., an ID card) held by the user and on which the user ID is stored.

The notification processing unit 46 refers to the authenticator correspondence information 38 (see FIG. 4) and identifies the service ID and authenticator ID associated with the acquired user ID. The notification processing unit 46 then notifies the user of the service indicated by the identified service ID and the authenticator 16 indicated by the identified authenticator ID (i.e., the authenticator 16 corresponding to the service). For example, the notification processing unit 46 can notify the user of the authenticator 16 corresponding to the service available to the user by displaying on the display 32 an authenticator notification screen indicating a combination of the service name of the service indicated by the identified service ID and the authenticator name of the authenticator 16 indicated by the identified authenticator ID.

An example of such an authenticator notification screen is shown in FIG. 6. In the example of FIG. 6, it is shown that the user can use service A, service B, and service C, the authenticator 16 corresponding to service A is authentication application X of a smartphone, the authenticator 16 corresponding to service B is a USB key, and the authenticator 16 corresponding to service C is authentication application Y of a smartphone.

In this way, the notification processing unit 46 notifies the user of the authenticator 16 corresponding to each service available to the user, so that the user can know which authenticator 16 is required for authentication processing for each service.

In this embodiment, the notification processing unit 46 notifies the user of the authenticator 16 corresponding to each service by displaying an authenticator notification screen on the display 32, but the notification method is not limited to this. For example, the notification processing unit 46 may notify by audio output. Alternatively, the notification processing unit 46 may display the authenticator notification screen on the terminal used by the user, rather than on the display 32 of the image processing device 12.

When the notification processing unit 46 is able to acquire not only the user ID but also the service ID of the service that the user wishes to use, it may refer to the authenticator correspondence information 38, identify the authenticator ID associated with the acquired user ID and service ID, and notify the user of the authenticator 16 indicated by the identified authenticator ID.

An example of the authenticator notification screen in this case is shown in Figure 7. In the example of Figure 7, the user wishes to use service A, and the authenticator notification screen shows that the authenticator 16 corresponding to service A is authentication application X of the smartphone.

The method of acquiring the service ID of the service that the user wishes to use may be any method. For example, if an authentication process is performed using an incorrect authenticator 16 that is not compatible with the service that the user wishes to use, the user will not be authenticated by the service, but the service ID of the service will be sent to the image processing device 12 during the authentication process (step S44 in Figure 5). This allows the image processing device 12 to acquire the service ID of the service. Alternatively, the service ID may be acquired by the user inputting it from the input interface 34.

If the image processing device 12 merely acquires a user ID and notifies the user identified by the user ID of multiple services available to the user and the authenticators 16 corresponding to each service, problems may arise from the perspective of security. For example, if user B somehow acquires an ID card on which user A's user ID is stored and user B uses the ID card to input user A's user ID into the image processing device 12, user B will be notified of multiple services available to user A and the authenticators 16 corresponding to each service, even if user A does not wish it.

In preparation for such a case, the notification processing unit 46 may notify the authenticator 16 corresponding to each service available to the user only when the user indicated by the acquired user ID is authenticated by the image processing device 12 through device authentication processing. As a result, in the above example, unless user A is authenticated by the image processing device 12, the multiple services available to user A and the authenticators 16 corresponding to each service will not be notified to user B.

The notification processing unit 46 may be able to set in advance in the image processing device 12 whether or not to notify the user of the authentication device 16 corresponding to the service. This setting can be made by an administrator of the image processing device 12 or the user himself. Whether or not to notify may be set for each user. The notification processing unit 46 notifies the user of the authentication device 16 corresponding to each service in the above-mentioned manner only when the setting is such that the authentication of the authentication device 16 is notified, and when the setting is such that the authentication of the authentication device 16 is not notified, the user is not notified of the authentication device 16 corresponding to each service.

Returning to FIG. 2 again, the process execution unit 48 executes a process involving the use of a service provided by the service providing device 14 in response to an instruction from a user. In this specification, such a process is referred to as a service-attached process. Although not limited to this, an example of a service-attached process is a process in which a paper document is optically read by a scanner (not shown) possessed by the image processing device 12 to obtain image data, and the image data is then sent to a service. The user must be authenticated by the image processing device 12 before instructing the process execution unit 48 to execute a service-attached process. That is, the process execution unit 48 executes a service-attached process in response to an instruction from a user authenticated by the image processing device 12.

Because a user needs to be authenticated by a service in order to use that service, in order for the user to have the image processing device 12 execute service-attached processing, the user needs to be authenticated by both the service and the image processing device 12. Here, if the service authenticates the user when the image processing device 12 has not authenticated the user, the authentication unit 44 may be configured to consider that the image processing device 12 has authenticated the user. In other words, the authentication unit 44 may create an authentication state for the user on the image processing device 12 when the user logs in to the service. This allows the image processing device 12 to omit device authentication processing for authenticating the user when executing service-attached processing.

Preferably, when the authentication strength of the authentication to the service is equal to or greater than the authentication strength of the authentication to the image processing device 12, the authentication unit 44 may form an authentication state of the user to the image processing device 12 by the user being authenticated to the service. The authentication strength indicates the degree of assurance that the authenticated user is indeed the user himself. In other words, the authentication strength indicates the difficulty of a third party impersonating another person and being authenticated. The authentication strength is determined according to the authentication method. For example, when comparing biometric authentication and password authentication, it can be said that biometric authentication has a higher authentication strength than password authentication because passwords are more likely to be leaked to others than biometric information. There are various methods of biometric authentication, and the authentication strength may be determined according to each method.

Because the authentication unit 44 itself executes the device authentication process, it is already aware of the authentication method of the user for the image processing device 12. Therefore, it is possible to obtain the authentication strength of authentication for the image processing device 12 based on the authentication method for the image processing device 12. Also, in this embodiment, since each service authenticates the user by FIDO authentication, it is possible to obtain the authentication strength of authentication for each service as a strength corresponding to the FIDO authentication. Furthermore, in FIDO authentication, various methods of authenticating the user in the authenticator 16 are possible, and the authentication unit 44 may obtain the authentication strength of authentication for the service taking into account the authentication method of the user in the authenticator 16. The authentication unit 44 can obtain the authentication method of the user in the authenticator 16 in the authentication process for each service based on the authenticator compatibility information 38 (see FIG. 4).

When the authentication strength of the authentication to the service is equal to or greater than the authentication strength of the authentication to the image processing device 12, the authentication status of the user to the image processing device 12 is established when the user is authenticated to the service, thereby preventing the authentication status of the user to the image processing device 12 from being established by an authentication method that is weaker than the authentication strength of the authentication to the image processing device 12.

The process execution unit 48 can execute multiple service-attached processes that involve the use of different services. For example, the process execution unit 48 can execute a service-attached process A that scans a paper document and transmits image data obtained from the scanned paper document to service A, and a service-attached process B that transmits image data obtained from the scanned paper document to service B.

In this case, the notification processing unit 46 causes the display 32 to display a plurality of buttons corresponding to a plurality of service-attached processes for inputting an instruction to execute the service-attached processes. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the notification processing unit 46 causes the display 32 to display an instruction button 60 for inputting an instruction to execute service-attached process A, and an instruction button 62 for inputting an instruction to execute service-attached process B.

Here, the notification processing unit 46 may display each button corresponding to each service-attached process in a manner that allows the user to grasp the authenticator 16 corresponding to the service used in the corresponding service-attached process. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the notification processing unit 46 displays a character string indicating the authenticator 16 required to receive authentication from service A used in service-attached process A near the instruction button 60 corresponding to service-attached process A, and displays a character string indicating the authenticator 16 required to receive authentication from service B used in service-attached process B near the instruction button 62 corresponding to service-attached process B. Of course, other display modes may be used as long as the user can grasp the authenticator 16 corresponding to the service to be used in each service-attached process.

Furthermore, when there is a service for which the user has already been authenticated (i.e., a service for which the user has already logged in) among the multiple services used in the multiple service-attached processes corresponding to the multiple buttons, the notification processing unit 46 may display the button corresponding to the service-attached process using the authenticated service and the button corresponding to the service-attached process using the service for which the user has not yet been authenticated in different display modes. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the notification processing unit 46 displays a character string indicating that the user has been authenticated by service A near the instruction button 60 corresponding to the service-attached process A using the service A for which the user has been authenticated, and displays a character string indicating that the user has not been authenticated by service B near the instruction button 62 corresponding to the service-attached process B using the service B for which the user has not been authenticated. At this time, it is preferable to display the authentication device 16 required for authentication from service B. Of course, other display modes may be used as long as the user can grasp the presence or absence of authentication from the service to be used in each service-attached process. For example, the button 60 and the button 62 may be displayed in different colors.

Consider a case where the process execution unit 48 is capable of executing service-attached process A as a first service-attached process involving the use of service A as a first service that authenticates a user using authenticator A as a first authenticator, and service-attached process B as a second service-attached process involving the use of service B as a second service that authenticates a user using authenticator B as a second authenticator, and when a user inputs an instruction to execute service-attached process A into the image processing device 12, the user mistakenly performs authentication process for service A using authenticator B (instead of authenticator A). For example, consider a case where buttons 60 and 62 shown in FIG. 8 are displayed on the display 32, and the user operates button 60 to use authenticator B corresponding to service B during authentication process for service A.

In this case, the user cannot be authenticated by service A. However, the user may think that it does not matter whether the service to be used is service A or service B. In this example, the user may think that it does not matter whether the service to be used is service A or service B as the destination (management destination) of the electronic document.

In this case, normally, the user needs to prepare an authentication device A corresponding to the service A used by the service-attached process A for which an execution instruction has been input to the image processing device 12, and then be authenticated by the service A using the authentication device A. However, the notification processing unit 46 may inquire of the user as to whether or not it is acceptable to execute the service-attached process B using the service B corresponding to the authentication device B used by the user. For example, in the screen of FIG. 8, when the user operates the button 60 to input an execution instruction for the service-attached process A and performs authentication processing for the service A using the authentication device B corresponding to the service B, the notification processing unit 46 displays "Yes" and "No" buttons on the display 32 together with the message "May I send a document to service B?" as shown in FIG. 10. Here, when the user operates the "Yes" button, the authentication unit 44 performs authentication processing for service B, and the processing execution unit 48 transmits the electronic document to service B. When the user operates the "No" button, the processing execution unit 48 does not transmit the electronic document to service B.

Specifically, the notification processing unit 46 can identify the authenticator 16 that was (mistakenly) used in the authentication process for service A during the authentication process. For example, if the authenticator 16 transmits an authenticator ID when transmitting signature data from the authenticator 16 to the image processing device 12 (step S52 in FIG. 5), the notification processing unit 46 can identify the authenticator 16 used by the user based on the authenticator ID. The notification processing unit 46 then refers to the authenticator correspondence information 38 to identify the service that corresponds to the authenticator 16 used by the user. Then, it inquires of the user as to whether or not it is OK to execute a service-accompanying process that involves the use of that service.

The process execution unit 48 may also be capable of executing a multi-service associated process involving the use of multiple services that authenticate a user using different authentication devices 16. For example, the process execution unit 48 may be capable of executing a multi-service associated process involving the use of service A that authenticates a user using authentication device A and service B that authenticates a user using authentication device B. Although not limited to this, an example of the multi-service associated process is a process in which a paper document is optically read by a scanner possessed by the image processing device 12 to obtain image data, and the image data is then transmitted to multiple services.

To execute the multi-service attached processing, the user needs to be authenticated for each of the multiple services using multiple, mutually different, authenticators 16. However, it is conceivable that the user may only have some of the multiple authenticators 16 immediately available, and may not be authenticated by all of the multiple services used by the multi-service attached processing, and may be authenticated only by some of the multiple services.

Therefore, when a user inputs an instruction to execute a multi-service-attached process and the user is authenticated by some of the multiple services used in the multi-service-attached process, the process execution unit 48 may execute the multi-service-attached process involving the use of a service that authenticates the user, but not the use of a service that does not authenticate the user. For example, consider a situation in which a user inputs an instruction to execute a multi-service-attached process involving the use of service A that authenticates the user using authenticator A and service B that authenticates the user using authenticator B, and the user is unable to prepare authenticator B and is authenticated by service A through authentication processing using authenticator A, but is not authenticated by service B. In this case, the process execution unit 48 executes the multi-service-attached process involving the use of service A, but not the use of service B.

In this case, the process execution unit 48 may reserve the instruction to execute the multi-service-attached process involving the use of service B, which has not authenticated the user. If the user is authenticated by service B through authentication processing using authentication device B while the execution instruction is in a reserved state, the process execution unit 48 executes the multi-service-attached process involving the use of service B without the user inputting a new instruction to execute the multi-service-attached process to the image processing device 12.

The overview of the image processing device 12 according to this embodiment has been described above. Below, the flow of processing by the image processing device 12 will be explained according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 11.

In step S70, the image processing device 12 obtains the user ID of the user to be notified.

In step S72, the notification processing unit 46 determines whether the image processing device 12 is set to notify the user of the authentication device 16 corresponding to the service. If the setting is to notify, the process proceeds to step S74. If the setting is to notify, the process bypasses steps S74 to S80 and proceeds to step S82.

In step S74, the notification processing unit 46 determines whether the image processing device 12 has authenticated the user through device authentication processing by the authentication unit 44. If the image processing device 12 has not authenticated the user, the process proceeds to step S76, and if the user has been authenticated, the process bypasses steps S76 and S78 and proceeds to step S80.

In step S76, the authentication unit 44 requests the user to log in to the image processing device 12. For example, the authentication unit 44 displays a character string such as "Please log in" on the display 32.

In step S78, the authentication unit 44 determines whether or not the user has logged in to the image processing device 12 in response to the authentication request in step S76. In this example, the authentication device 16 corresponding to the service is notified on the condition that the image processing device 12 has authenticated the user, so if the user has not logged in to the image processing device 12, the process ends. If the user has logged in to the image processing device 12, the process proceeds to step S80.

In step S80, the notification processing unit 46 notifies the user of each authenticator 16 corresponding to each service available to the user, based on the user ID acquired in step S70 and the authenticator compatibility information 38. If the image processing device 12 has acquired the service ID of the service that the user wishes to use prior to step S80, the authenticator 16 required by the user for authentication processing to the service may be identified based on the user ID, the service ID, and the authenticator compatibility information 38, and notified to the user.

In step S82, when authentication processing for the service using the authentication device 16 is started, the authentication unit 44 relays authentication data related to the authentication processing between the authentication device 16 and the authentication server 18.

In step S84, the authentication unit 44 determines whether or not the service has authenticated the user. If the user has been authenticated by the service, the process proceeds to step S86. If the service has failed to authenticate the user, the process ends.

In step S86, the process execution unit 48 executes a service-related process involving the use of the service in response to an execution instruction from the user.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

For example, the function of the authentication server 18 may be performed by the service providing device 14. In this case, the service providing device 14 corresponds to an authentication device, and the registration process for registering a user to the service and the authentication process for the service to authenticate the user are performed between the authenticator 16 and the service providing device 14 via the image processing device 12.

10 Authentication system, 12 Image processing device, 14 Service providing device, 16 Authenticator, 18 Authentication server, 20 Communication line, 30 Communication interface, 32 Display, 34 Input interface, 36 Memory, 38 Authenticator compatibility information, 40 Processor, 42 Registration unit, 44 Authentication unit, 46 Notification processing unit, 48 Processing execution unit.

Claims (10)

A processor is provided.
The processor,
relaying authentication data relating to the authentication process between an authentication device that executes authentication processing of a user for a service and an authentication device corresponding to the service that is necessary for the authentication processing;
a user ID for identifying the user, a service ID for identifying the service, and an authenticator ID for identifying the authenticator are associated with each other, and based on authenticator correspondence information in which a plurality of pairs of service IDs and authenticator IDs are associated with one user ID, and on the user ID of the user, the authenticator corresponding to the service available to the user is notified;
23. An information processing apparatus comprising: The processor,
notifying the user of the authentication device corresponding to the user ID and the service ID based on the authentication device correspondence information, and the user ID and the service ID of the user;
2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, The processor,
When the user is authenticated by the information processing device, the user is notified of the authentication device corresponding to the service used by the user.
3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is a computer. The processor,
executes a service-related process involving use of the service in response to an instruction from the user authenticated by the information processing device;
4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is a computer. The processor,
When the user is authenticated to the service, an authentication state of the user to the information processing device is established.
5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4. The processor,
When an authentication strength of the authentication to the service is equal to or greater than an authentication strength of the authentication to the information processing device, an authentication state of the user to the information processing device is formed based on the fact that the user has been authenticated to the service.
6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, The processor,
A plurality of the service-related processes involving the use of the services different from each other can be executed,
displaying a plurality of buttons corresponding to the plurality of service-accompanying processes, respectively, for inputting an instruction to execute the service-accompanying processes, on a display of the information processing device in a manner that allows the user to grasp the authentication device corresponding to the service used in each of the service-accompanying processes;
5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4. The processor,
A first service-attaching process involving the use of a first service that authenticates the user using a first authenticator, and a second service-attaching process involving the use of a second service that authenticates the user using a second authenticator,
when the user inputs an instruction to execute the first service-accompanying process and when the user performs the authentication process using the second authentication device, the device inquires of the user as to whether or not the second service-accompanying process may be executed.
8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the information processing apparatus is a computer. The processor,
A multi-service incidental process involving the use of a plurality of services that authenticate the user using different authentication devices is executable;
When the user inputs an instruction to execute the multi-service auxiliary process and the user is authenticated for some of the plurality of services, the multi-service auxiliary process is executed with the use of a service for which the user has been authenticated, without the use of a service for which the user has not been authenticated.
9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, 7, or 8. On the computer,
relaying authentication data relating to the authentication process between an authentication device that executes authentication processing of a user for a service and an authentication device corresponding to the service that is necessary for the authentication processing;
a user ID for identifying the user, a service ID for identifying the service, and an authenticator ID for identifying the authenticator are associated with each other, and based on authenticator correspondence information in which a plurality of pairs of service IDs and authenticator IDs are associated with one user ID, and based on the user ID of the user, the authenticator corresponding to the service available to the user is notified to the user;
2. An information processing program comprising:

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