TECHNIQUES FOR ENSURING AUTHENTICATION AND INTEGRITY OF COMMUNICATIONS

Techniques are described for ensuring data integrity and authentication of received messages. One technique includes sending a request from a first module to a second module in which the request includes a first portion that is a shared secret encrypted with a public key, obtaining by the second module a private key from a secure and trusted information store, such as a license information store, including license information or other application specific information for the first module, using the private key to decrypt the first portion and obtain the shared secret, sending a response from the second module to the first module in which the response includes authentication data and at least one data item used with the shared secret to determine the authentication data, and performing by the first module verification processing to verify the authentication data included in the response.