Establishing and employing the provable untampered state of a device
US6233685A · kind A · utility
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 29, 1997 |
| Grant date | May 15, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 29, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2211/008
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus is presented for establishing provable integrity or untampered state in secure devices. It employs active tamper response; generating authentication secrets inside the device via real hardware randomness to minimize risk of compromised factory machines; activating tamper response at a trusted point of trust to protect against attacks and/or continually certify the integrity of the device along shipping channels and at user sites; and allowing for all keys to be regenerated so that in accordance with sound cryptographic practice no one needs to depend on permanent keys. The point of trust is a central authority that is trusted by all parties that need to trust the provable untampered state of the secure device. At any point the certifying authority authenticates the integrity and/or untampered state of the device, and re-issues a new certificate for that device. Alternate embodiments enable the device to be shipped without its tamper-response enabled, and/or to re-initialize and certify devices that have been erased or zeroized. Particular methods are used to restrict access of the device's central private key only to trustworthy code in the device. This inven…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.