Systems and methods to secure industrial sensors and actuators

• US 10,095,858 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2014
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (Analog Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (Analog Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Haija, Samer A., Yanamadala, Chowdary Subbayya, Kurkowski, Hal
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Linglan E
• Application Number:
  US14/223,735
• Publication Number:
  US 20150121507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,660 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/008 Public Key, Asymmetric Key, Asymmetric Encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/30 Public key, i.e. encryption algorithm being computationally infeasible to invert or user's encryption keys not requiring secrecy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials

Abstract

Various embodiments of the invention provide for secure data communication in industrial process control architectures that employ a network of sensors and actuators. In various embodiments, data is secured by a secure serial transmission system that detects and authenticates IO-Link devices that are equipped with secure transceivers circuits, thereby, ensuring that non-trusted or non-qualified hardware is prevented from connecting to a network and potentially compromising system behavior.

Claims

1. A process control system to facilitate authentication of Input/Output-Link (IO-Link) devices within a process control network, the system comprising:

a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) comprising a plurality of IO paths;

a serial link coupled to the PLC, the serial link is configured to operate with an IO-Link;

a plurality of IO-Link devices comprising;

one of a sensor and an actuator coupled to the serial link;

an IO-link device secure transceiver that comprises a memory device to store a private key of a private-public key pair; and

one of an encryption and decryption engine; and

a PLC compute node coupled to the PLC, the compute node configures one of the sensor and actuator, wherein the serial link comprises an IO-Link secure master transceiver coupled to a programmable microcontroller, the IO-Link secure master transceiver comprises a memory device to store a public key of the private-public key pair and is configured to send an authorization request to one of the sensor and actuator, wherein the IO-Link secure transceiver and the IO-Link secure master transceiver use the private and public keys in a cryptographic operation to data provided to or received from the IO-Link secure transceiver or the IO-Link secure master transceiver.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the IO-Link secure master transceiver comprises multiple output ports to communicate secure data with multiple IO-Link secure transceiver devices in a point-to-point configuration.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the IO-Link secure device transceiver comprises one of an encryption and decryption engine.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the IO-Link secure master transceiver is configured to operate with both authenticated and unauthenticated IO-Link devices.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the programmable microcontroller is electrically isolated by an optocoupler.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the serial link generates security and authentication functions that enable secure communication with one of the sensor and actuator via a communication channel.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the communication channel is a three-conductor cable.

8. A method to authenticate an Input/Output-Link (IO-Link) device, the method comprising:

detecting the presence of one of a sensor and actuator that comprises an IO-Link secure transceiver;

sending an authorization request from an IO-Link secure master transceiver to one of the sensor and actuator that comprises a memory device to store a private key of a private-public key pair, the IO-Link secure master transceiver comprising a memory device to store a public key of the private-public key pair, the IO-Link secure transceiver and the IO-Link secure master transceiver using the private and public keys in a cryptographic operation to data provided to or received from the IO-Link secure transceiver or the IO-Link secure master transceiver;

receiving a response signal from an IO-Link device comprising an IO-link device secure transceiver, one of an encryption and decryption engine, and one of the sensor and actuator in response to the authorization request;

validating one of the sensor and actuator in the IO-Link device based on the response signal to determine whether one of the sensor and actuator is compatible with another device; and

enabling a transmission via a communication channel in response to detecting that the response signal is valid.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising disabling the transmission via the communication channel in response to detecting that the response signal is invalid.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein sending the authorization request comprises sending secret data.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein validating comprises applying a security protocol to enabling the transmission.

12. The method according to claim 8, further comprising converting the response signal prior to processing.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein one of the sensor and actuator is enabled by a communications module.

14. The method according to claim 8, further comprising transmitting encrypted data between one of the sensor and actuator and a master transceiver.

15. A device to authenticate an Input/Output-Link (IO-Link) device, the device comprising:

a first IO-Link secure transceiver configured to communicate with a programmable microcontroller, the first IO-Link secure transceiver being configured to send an authorization request to a plurality of IO-Link devices each comprising one of a sensor and an actuator that comprises a second IO-Link secure transceiver, the second IO-Link secure transceiver comprising a memory device to store a private key of the private-public key pair, the IO-Link secure transceiver and the IO-Link secure master transceiver using the private and public keys in a cryptographic operation to data provided to or received from the IO-Link secure transceiver or the IO-Link secure master transceiver; and

an authentication module configured to secure data that is transmitted to, or received in response to the authorization request, from the second IO-Link secure transceiver, the authentication module is configured to use the private key and a public key to provide one of an encryption processing and a decryption processing of the data, the authentication module further configured to validate one of the sensor and actuator based on the response signal and determine whether one of the sensor and actuator is compatible with another device.

16. The device according to claim 15, wherein the data comprises one of diagnostic data, status data, and messages communicated using a protocol.

17. The device according to claim 15, wherein the first TO-Link secure transceiver is embedded in a control module.

18. The device according to claim 15, wherein the programmable microcontroller comprises memory that is configured to store data transmitted over a serial link.