A Pattern Language for Providing Client-Server Confidential Communication

This paper extracts and documents patterns that identify problems and solutions concerning confidentiality in a client-server environment. These patterns are then organized as a pattern language. The idea is to include a new layer that is responsible for providing the security framework. This layer is composed by a Client Secure Socket and a Server Secure Socket. In order to obtain confidentiality, a combination of symmetric and asymmetric (public/private) cryptography techniques is proposed. For data encryption is proposed the use of the symmetric system with a Session Key. And for exchanging the Session Key, the public/private key pair model is used. This combination provides a fast and reliable cryptosystem.