Method to upgrade content encryption

• US 10,057,641 B2
• Filed: 05/26/2009
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Candelore, Brant L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eskandarnia, Arvin
• Application Number:
  US12/454,912
• Publication Number:
  US 20100246819A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,374 Days
• Field of Search: 380201
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0822 using key encryption key
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8186 specially adapted to be executed by a peripheral of the client device, e.g. by a reprogrammable remote control

Abstract

Generation of secret keys is carried out in a smartcard for use by a receiver device'"'"'s main processor, or alternatively, decryption processing for selectively encrypted content is carried out in the smartcard itself in order to thwart hacking and pirating of protected video content. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Claims

1. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of encrypted segments of the digital video content that are encrypted using a predetermined encryption method;

demultiplexing the digital video content to select the encrypted segments;

buffering the encrypted segments of the digital video content in a buffer memory that is accessible by a main processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

the main processor selecting the encrypted segments of the digital video content and sending the encrypted segments of the digital video content to a smartcard over a smartcard interface;

at the smartcard, receiving the encrypted segments of the digital video content and decrypting the encrypted segments of the digital video content to produce decrypted segments of the digital video content;

the main processor receiving the decrypted segments of the digital video content from the smartcard over the smartcard interface; and

the main processor storing the decrypted segments of the digital video content to the buffer memory, wherein before the encrypted segments of the digital video content are sent over the smartcard interface, the main processor forming part of the video content receiver device encrypts the encrypted segments of the digital video content using a local key and after reception by the smartcard, the encrypted segments of the digital video content are decrypted with the local key.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the decrypted segments of the digital video content are received from the smartcard at the main processor forming part of the video content receiver device, the smartcard encrypts the decrypted segments of the digital video content with a local key and after reception by the processor forming part of the video content receiver device, the segments of the digital video content are decrypted with a local key.

3. The method according to claim 2, where the buffer memory part of a memory that also stores non-encrypted segments of the digital video content;

and further comprising assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment of the digital video content replacing the encrypted segment of the digital video content in the memory.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the smartcard interface is based on the ISO 7816 standard.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the encrypted segments of the digital video content are part of one of a Transport Stream packet or an Internet Protocol (IP) packet.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the buffer memory is part of a memory that also stores non-encrypted segments of the digital video content and where the non-encrypted segments of the digital video content that are stored in memory are decrypted by a coverage decryption method.

7. The method according to claim 1, where the buffer memory part of a memory that also stores non-encrypted segments of the digital video content;

and further comprising assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment of the digital video content replacing the encrypted segment of the digital video content in the memory.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising sending the reassembled stream to a decoder or recording the reassembled stream to a hard disk drive.

9. The method according to claim 1, where the buffer memory part of a memory that also stores non-encrypted segments of the digital video content;

and further comprising assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment of the digital video content replacing the encrypted segment of the digital video content in the memory.

10. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of encrypted segments of the digital video content that are encrypted using a predetermined encryption method;

storing the encrypted segments of the digital video content in a memory that is accessible by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

at the processor forming part of the video content receiver device, receiving a decryption key from a smartcard;

at the smartcard passing at least a portion of the decryption algorithm that uses the key to carry out decryption of the encrypted segments of the digital video content to the video content receiver device'"'"'s processor;

the processor applying the key to decrypt the encrypted segments of the digital video content using the decryption algorithm and bypassing a hardware decryption engine that comprises a part of the video content receiver device; and

storing the decrypted segments of the digital video content to the memory.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein before the key is sent to the processor, the smartcard encrypts the key using a local key and after reception by the processor, the key is decrypted with the local key.

12. The method according to claim 10, where the memory comprises a unified memory further comprising assembling stream of video content with the decrypted segment of the digital video content replacing the encrypted segment of the digital video content in the unified memory.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising sending the reassembled stream to one of a decoder for viewing or a hard disk drive for storing.

14. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the smartcard passing an entire decryption algorithm to the video content receiver device'"'"'s processor.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the applying the key comprises applying the key as a keystream to the encrypted segments of content making the encrypted content clear.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the applying the key comprises generating a keystream so that the keystream may be applied to more bytes of encrypted segments of the digital video content to render them clear.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein the applying the key comprises using the key with a symmetrical encryption algorithm which is executed by the processor to render the encrypted segments of the digital video content clear.

18. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of encrypted segments of the digital video content that are encrypted using a predetermined encryption method;

storing at least the encrypted segments of the digital video content in a memory that is accessible by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

at a smartcard having an internal processor, generating a content decryption key by applying an algorithm to an entitlement control message (ECM) as processed on the smartcard;

at the smartcard passing at least a portion of the decryption algorithm that uses the content decryption key to carry out decryption of the encrypted segments of the digital video content to the video content receiver device'"'"'s processor;

passing the content decryption key to the video content receiver device'"'"'s processor;

bypassing a hardware decryption engine residing in the receiver device;

at the receiver device'"'"'s processor, in software decrypting the encrypted segments of the digital video content to produce decrypted segments of the digital video content;

storing the decrypted segments of the digital video content to the memory;

assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment of the digital video content replacing the encrypted segment of the digital video content in the unified memory; and

sending the reassembled stream to a decoder.

19. A smartcard for use in a pay-TV receiver, comprising:

a smartcard housing cryptographic processing circuits;

the smartcard cryptographic processing circuits being configured to receive encrypted segments of selectively encrypted video content via a smartcard interface;

where at the smartcard'"'"'s internal cryptographic processing circuits are configured to decrypt the encrypted segments of the digital video content to produce decrypted segments to replace encrypted segments of the digital video content to thereby create a clear stream of digital video content; and

the smartcard being further configured to send at least a portion of a decryption algorithm and a decryption key for use in decryption by the decryption algorithm to a processor via the smartcard interface.

20. A smartcard for use in a pay-TV receiver, comprising:

a smartcard housing a cryptographic processor and memory;

the smartcard processor generating a key value by applying an algorithm to an entitlement control message (ECM) as processed by the cryptographic processor on the smartcard;

the smartcard passing at least a portion of the decryption algorithm that uses the content decryption key to carry out decryption of encrypted segments of digital video content to the pay-TV receiver device'"'"'s processor; and

the smartcard passing the key value to a pay-TV receiver device'"'"'s processor to carry out content decryption in software and bypassing a hardware decryption engine located in the pay-TV receiver.

21. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is multiple selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of multiple encrypted segments of the digital video content that are encrypted using multiple predetermined encryption methods;

storing one of the encrypted segments of the digital video content using a predetermined encryption method and non-encrypted segments of the digital video content in a memory that is accessible by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

at the processor forming a part of the video content receiver device, receiving a key value from a detachable smartcard;

the smartcard passing at least a portion of a decryption algorithm that uses the key value to carry out decryption of the encrypted segments of the digital video content to the processor forming part of the video content receiver device, thereby bypassing a hardware decryption engine in the video content receiver;

the processor using the key value in a software process in one of the following ways;

applying the key value as a keystream to the encrypted segments of digital video content making them clear,

generating a keystream so that the keystream may be applied to encrypted segments of the digital video content to render them clear,

using the key with a symmetric encryption algorithm which is executed by the processor to render the encrypted segments of the digital video content clear, and

storing the decrypted segments of the digital video content to the memory.