TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to a field of data communications, and more particularly, to validating routers in a network by utilizing attestation tokens in Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol.

BACKGROUND

Dedicated crypto-processors, such as a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), may take measurements necessary to attest the identity of a device and running binaries on the device. These measurements may comprise evidence that the device is in a known safe state. However, a receiver must be able to certify the evidence as fresh. Without a guarantee of freshness, an attacker may have an opening to inject previously recorded measurements, asserting what is replayed as being current. When sensitive information is being transmitted to a destination device through a network, network traffic should not be sent through comprised network nodes (e.g., hacked or captured nodes) to prevent leakage of or tampering with the sensitive information. However, traditional protections and link encryption are ineffectual to ensure that each router in the end to end path is not compromised especially when an attacker gains root access to a device via some exploit.

