Method and system for an efficient shared-derived secret provisioning mechanism

US10567362B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Rubicon Labs, Inc. · US

Inventors

• William V. Oxford · Austin, US
• Gerald E. Woodcock, III · Austin, US
• Stephen E. Smith · Mahopac, US
• Roderick Schultz · San Francisco, US
• Marcos Portnoi · Austin, US
• Stuart W. Juengst · Austin, US
• Charles T. Schad · Austin, US
• Michael K. Eneboe · San Jose, US
• Alexander Usach · San Francisco, US
• Keith B. Evans · San Jose, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 15, 2017
• Grant date: Feb 18, 2020
• Expiry date: Oct 19, 2037

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L63/0876
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Embodiments of systems and methods disclosed herein include an embedded secret provisioning system that is based on a shared-derivative mechanism. Embodiments of this mechanism use a trusted third-party topology, but only a single instance of a public-private key exchange is required for initialization. Embodiments of the system and methods are secure and any of the derived secret keys are completely renewable in untrusted environments without any reliance on asymmetric cryptography. The derived secrets exhibit zero knowledge attributes and the associated zero knowledge proofs are open and available for review. Embodiments of systems and methods can be implemented in a wide range of previously-deployed devices as well as integrated into a variety of new designs using minimal roots-of-trust.