Method and apparatus for protecting the transfer of data

• US 20030174844A1
• Filed: 03/11/2003
• Published: 09/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/1999
• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 7,730,300 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/277
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26606 for generating or managing entitlement messages, e.g. Entitlement Control Message [ECM] or Entitlement Management Message [EMM] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26613 for generating or managing keys in general key distribution for secret or secure communication involving central third party, e.g. key distribution center [KDC] or trusted third party [TTP] H04L9/083; network support of key management H04L63/06; key management for network security in communication control or processing H04W12/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4623 Processing of entitlement messages, e.g. ECM [Entitlement Control Message] or EMM [Entitlement Management Message] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/63345 by transmitting keys key distribution for secret or secure communication H04L9/08; network support of key management H04L63/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a method for scrambling and descrambling program data comprises the receipt of a mating key generator message including a manufacturer identifier. The mating key generator message is transmitted to a first remote source identified by the manufacturer identifier. In response, a mating key is received from the first remote source. Then, the mating key is supplied to a second remote source, the mating key being subsequently used to encrypt a service key used for scrambling program data.

Claims

1. A secure content delivery system, comprising:

a set-top box to initiate a request for program data; and

a conditional access (CA) control system in communication with the set-top box, the CA control system to transmit information to a remote source, and in response, to receive a mating key being based on the transmitted information from the remote source, the mating key being used to encrypt a control word used for scrambling the program data prior to transmission to the set-top box.

2. The secure content delivery system of claim 1, wherein the remote source is a plurality of servers each associated with a manufacturer of set-top boxes.

3. The secure content delivery system of claim 2, wherein the transmitted information including a manufacturer identifier that identifies one of the plurality of servers associated with the manufacturer of the set-top box in order to retrieve the mating key therefrom.

4. The secure content delivery system of claim 1, wherein transmitted information comprises a mating key sequence number being used for reordering packets forming the mating key where the mating key is more than one packet in length.

5. The secure content delivery system of claim 1, wherein transmitted information comprises an identifier that identifies a supplier of the program data, the supplier being one of a cable provider, a satellite-based provider, a terrestrial-based provider, and an Internet service provider.

6. The secure content delivery system of claim 1, wherein transmitted information comprises an identifier that indicates a provider of the CA control system.

7. The secure content delivery system of claim 1, wherein the remote source is a trusted third party including a plurality of databases accessible by the CA control system.

8. The secure content delivery system of claim 1, wherein the CA control system generates and provides an entitlement control message (ECM) and an entitlement management message (EMM) to the-set-top box after receipt of the mating key, the ECM comprises at least one global key to decrypt the ECM and a corresponding key identifier being a value that is digitally signed for use in checking whether the global key has been illicitly altered.

9. The secure content delivery system of claim 1, wherein CA control system generates and provides an entitlement control message (ECM) and an entitlement management message (EMM) to the set-top box after receipt of the mating key, the ECM comprises the control word in an encrypted format and the EMM comprises a mating key generator.

10. The secure content delivery system of claim 9, wherein the set-top box comprises a smart card and a descrambler component.

11. The secure content delivery system of claim 10, wherein the smart card of the set-top box receives the EMM and forwards the mating key generator from the EMM and the encrypted control word recovered from the ECM to the descrambler component of the set-top-box.

12. The secure content delivery system of claim 11, wherein the descrambler component comprises a first process block that performs an encryption operation on the mating key generator message using a unique key previously stored in the descrambler component to produce a key identical to the mating key, the key being loaded into a second process block that is used to decrypt the encrypted control word to produce the control word used for descrambling the scrambled program data.

13. A method comprising:

receiving a mating key generator message including a manufacturer identifier;

transmitting the mating key generator message to a first remote source identified by the manufacturer identifier;

receiving a mating key from the first remote source; and

supplying the mating key to a second remote source, the mating key being subsequently used to encrypt a service key used for scrambling program data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the mating key generator message further comprises a mating key sequence number being used for reordering packets forming the mating key where the mating key is more than one packet in length.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the mating key generator message further comprises an identifier that identifies a supplier of the program data, the supplier being one of a cable provider, a satellite-based provider, a terrestrial-based provider, and an Internet service provider.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the supplying of the mating key to the second remote source includes providing the mating key to a conditional access (CA) control system being in communication with a set-top box.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

supplying the encrypted service key and the mating key generator message to a descrambler component of the set-top box.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

producing an entitlement management message (EMM) that comprises the mating key generator message, the encrypted service key and a key identifier being a value that indicates a tier of service associated with the encrypted service key; and

providing the EMM to the set-top box.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

providing meta-data with an electronic program guide in an unscrambled format from the CA control system to the set-top box, the meta-data comprises a plurality of tag entries each comprising a channel name, a name of the program data, and a key identifier indicating a tier of service associated with the channel; and

providing the mating key generator message from the CA control system to the set-top box.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the meta-data comprises further comprises the mating key generator message.

21. A mating key gateway adapted for communication with a plurality of subscriber management systems each associated with a different content provider, comprising:

means for retrieving a mating key based on at least one of a serial number associated with a set-top box targeted to receive program data and a mating key generator; and

means for transmitting the mating key to the one of the plurality of subscriber management systems, the mating key being used to encrypt at least one service key provided to the set-top box.

22. The mating key gateway of claim 21 supporting operations from at least two subscriber management systems concurrently.

23. The mating key gateway of claim 22, wherein the at least two subscriber management systems include at least two of a group consisting of cable provider, a satellite-based provider and an Internet service provider.

24. An apparatus adapted to receive scrambled content and descramble the scrambled content, comprising:

a removable smart card adapted to receive (i) an encrypted control word, and (ii) a mating key generator message; and

a descrambler component to receive the encrypted control word and the mating key generator, the descambler component performs a cryptographic operation on the mating key generator to produce a key that is capable of decrypting the encrypted control word to recover a control word used for descrambling scrambled content loaded into the set-top box.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the smart card further receiving an enhancement control message including the encrypted control word, the enhancement control message includes access criteria for to a particular channel over which the scrambled content is transmitted.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the descrambler component is an integrated circuit.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the mating key generator received by the descrambler component comprises at least one key to decrypt the enhancement control message to recover the encrypted control word entirely within the descrambler component.

28. An apparatus adapted to receive scrambled content, comprising:

a network interface; and

a descrambler component to receive a mating key generator message, at least one encrypted service key and a corresponding key identifier to indicates a tier of service associated with the encrypted service key over the network interface, the descrambler component performing a cryptographic operation on the mating key generator to produce a key for decrypting the encrypted service key to recover a service key used to descramble the scrambled content.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the mating key generator message, the encrypted service key and the corresponding key identifier are contained in a single enhancement management message (EMM).

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the mating key generator message is supplied by meta-data associated with an electronic program guide while the encrypted service key and the corresponding key identifier are contained in an enhancement management message (EMM).

31. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein both the mating key generator message and the corresponding key identifier are supplied by meta-data associated with an electronic program guide while the encrypted service key is contained in an enhancement management message (EMM).