Abstract: Methods, systems, and data structures are provided for loading, authenticating, and configuring a module. A loader authenticates the identity of an instance of the module and configuration data associated with the instance of the module. Additionally, the loader generates a loadable executable instance of the module and loads the executable instance into a customized execution environment based on the configuration data. Moreover, the loader attests to the identity of the executable instance by providing one or more assertions as an attestation. The presence of the attestation provides evidence to support automatic identity and configuration authentication for the loaded executable instance, when the executable instance requests external resources that require authentication, or when the identity of the loadable executable instance is requested.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for identifying and characterizing boundaries in digital images and other digital data sets. At least two points within a digital image are selected. Clusters of sample points around the points are chosen. A pixel value histogram is generated for each sample point cluster. These histograms define frequency functions. The distance between the frequency functions, called a “density distance” is calculated and analyzed. The nature of the density distance is then used to determine if the two areas are relatively uniform, or if they indicate a presence of a boundary. To further refine the procedure, the method may be applied iteratively by modifying cluster variances, sizes, and distributions, and then reanalyzing the frequency functions generated.

Abstract: The present invention is an improved certificate revocation process that improves the efficiency of an authentication exchange in a public key distributed network system. Specifically, the present invention includes a novel revocation service (RS) that, in response to a unique request from a server node, selects certain revoked certificates from a current CRL to include in its reply so as to consume minimal system bandwidth. The unique request includes a number of parameters for consideration by the RS in generating its reply, including a maximum CRL size and/or a timestamp. The maximum CRL size indicates the largest number of revoked certificate serial numbers that the server node can process and thus receive in the revocation service reply, whereas the timestamp indicates the latest certificate revocation date of the certificates included in the CRL presently retained by the server node.