Patent attributes
An improved technique involves setting an administrator password in a server to a temporary password upon receipt of a request for administrator access to the server. Along these lines, when a support engineer receives a support ticket from a customer, the support engineer sends a request to obtain administrator access to the customer's server to an access control computer. The access control computer, upon receipt of the request, generates a temporary password that grants the support engineer a one-time administrator access to the server. The access control computer then changes the administrator password on the server to the temporary password and reveals the temporary password to the support engineer. At some time either after the engineer obtains administrator access to the server or after some specified time has passed, the access control computer invalidates the temporary password by changing the administrator password to a different password.
