Patent · US Active

Out-of-band spy detection and prevention for portable wireless systems

US9721121B2 · kind B2 · utility

0Cited by
4References
76Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 16, 2014
Grant dateAug 1, 2017
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 2, 2034

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2009/45579
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Certain embodiments employ an “out-of-band” mechanism to remove the physical controls for activating input peripherals from a portable device operating system and instead controlled by a separate peripheral control domain, isolated from the operating system domain by a machine virtualization/isolation technology. No additional hardware may be required. An adjunct I/O virtualization mechanism may also be included to abstract the guarded input peripheral interfaces, such that all attempts to turn them on from within the operating system are automatically redirected by the I/O virtualization mechanism to the peripheral control domain. The peripheral control domain may then conduct a policy-driven decision process to either allow, disallow, or request manual/explicit authorization of an access attempts. Physical access may be performed within the peripheral control domain. Because the access control and physical activation of input peripherals occur out-of-band from the operating system, these security-critical operations may be immune to vulnerabilities in the portable operating system.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.