Embedding X.509 Digital Certificates in Three-Dimensional Models for Authentication, Authorization, and Traceability of Product Data

Abstract

Exchange and reuse of three-dimensional (3D)-product models are hampered by the absence of trust in product-lifecycle-data quality. The root cause of the missing trust is years of “silo” functions (e.g., engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance) using independent and disconnected processes. Those disconnected processes result in data exchanges that do not contain all of the required information for each downstream lifecycle process, which inhibits the reuse of product data and results in duplicate data. The X.509 standard, maintained by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), was first issued in 1988. Although originally intended as the authentication framework for the X.500 series for electronic directory services, the X.509 framework is used in a wide range of implementations outside the originally intended paradigm. These implementations range from encrypting websites to software-code signing, yet X.509 certificate use has not widely penetrated engineering and product realms. Our approach is not trying to provide security mechanisms, but equally as important, our method aims to provide insight into what is happening with product data to support trusting the data. This paper provides a review of the use of X.509 certificates and proposes a solution for embedding X.509 digital certificates in 3D models for authentication, authorization, and traceability of product data. This paper also describes an application within the Aerospace domain. Finally, the paper draws conclusions and provides recommendations for further research into using X.509 certificates in product lifecycle management (PLM) workflows to enable a product lifecycle of trust.

Securing the digital threat for smart manufacturing:

“…This digitization generates a significant amount of data that is exchanged between the different actors and systems involved in the product lifecycle. Trustworthiness is key and only authentic and valid data should be consumed [10]. We presented a blockchain-based solution to secure and authenticate product data.…”

“…Hedberg, Krima, and Camelio [10] presents a methodology to generate digital signatures of product data using X.509 digital certificates. The generated signature contains a digital fingerprint of the asset that is signed and information about the identity of the signer such as his name and organization.…”

sFEA: A Secure Finite Element Analysis Technique

“…Of these techniques, the attributes of the 3D model such as features, multi-resolution, and the file containing the 3D model itself, are some of the popular ways of introducing access control into the design process. Different authentication techniques including encryption and digital certificates are used in access control [19,20,21]. All these approaches allow designers to preserve confidentiality while data is at rest or during transit, and are mainly focused on overcoming unauthorized edits and protecting access to sensitive information.…”

A Standards and Technology Roadmap for Scalable Distributed Manufacturing Systems

“…In addition, authentication, authorization, and traceability cannot be ignored. Hedberg et al [38] proposed using X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (X.509-PKI) [39] for embedding trace-ability metadata into artifacts. The embedded metadata would assist functions of the lifecycle in determining what data is, how the data can be used, and who did what to the data.…”