SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FINGERPRINTING IN A CLOUD-COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

摘要

A system and method for uniquely fingerprinting an execution environment instance in a cloud-computing environment in which an application is assigned to the execution environment instance, and a license key is required for the application to access a desired licensed feature. The application requests a fingerprint certificate from a cloud infrastructure management unit via the application's execution environment instance. The management unit identifies the fingerprint assigned to the execution environment instance, digitally signs a fingerprint certificate, and assigns an expiration timestamp. An application programming interface (API) sends the signed certificate and timestamp back to the application. The application verifies the digital signature and the timestamp and utilizes the fingerprint certificate to request a license key from a licensing system. The licensing system verifies the fingerprint certificate before generating the license key, and the application verifies that the license key matches the fingerprint before accessing the licensed feature.