US Patent 7418596 Secure, efficient, and mutually authenticated cryptographic key distribution

Systems and methods disclosed herein provide secure, efficient, and mutually authenticated cryptographic key distribution. A client or client manufacturer may pre-generate and pre-encrypt the cryptographic keys, store the encrypted keys within the client, and deliver such keys to the serving network's access server via the client, while also relying upon, if available, the authentication performed by a trusted access server of an intermediate network which the client must traverse in order to obtain access the serving network. If not available, a client password stored within the client may be used to enable client authentication by the serving network prior to acceptance of the delivered cryptographic keys.