Validating client-receivers

• US 20040237100A1
• Filed: 06/22/2004
• Published: 11/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta LLC (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pinder, Howard G., Wasilewski, Anthony J., Mattox, Mark D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,861,082 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2347 involving video stream encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25816 involving client authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• 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 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4367 Establishing a secure communication between the client and a peripheral device or smart card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4408 involving video stream encryption, e.g. re-encrypting a decrypted video stream for redistribution in a home network
• 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 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• 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 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing
• 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

Abstract

In a subscriber television system having a headend, a server, and plurality of client-receivers, the server, which is remote from the headend, is adapted to receive a validation-message from one or more client-receivers. The validation-message includes content and an authentication-token. The server validates that the sender of the validation-message is a valid client-receiver of the subscriber television system using an authentication-token and a validator that is known to both the server and to at least one of the client-receivers.

Claims

1. In a digital network having a server and a plurality of client-receivers, a validation-message embodied in a computer readable medium for validating a given client-receiver of a plurality of client-receivers with the server, the validation-message comprising:

a client-identifier associated with the given client-receiver; and

an authentication-token, wherein the authentication-token is produced by providing an input to a one-way function, wherein the input to the one-way function includes at least a portion of a validator and at least a portion of the client-identifier, wherein the validator is known to both the server and the given client-receiver.

2. The validation-message of claim 1, further including:

a second authentication-token, wherein the second authentication-token is produced by providing a second input to a second one-way function, wherein the second input to the second one-way function includes at least a portion of the client-identifier.

3. The validation-message of claim 2, wherein the first input into the first one-way function includes at least a portion of the second authentication-token.

4. The validation-message of claim 1, wherein the validator was securely transmitted to both the server and the given client-receiver.

5. The validation-message of claim 1, wherein the client-identifier is a public-key of a private-key/public-key pair belonging to the given client-receiver.

6. The validation-message of claim 1, wherein responsive to the server receiving the validation-message from the given client-receiver, the server determines whether the given client-receiver is a valid client-receiver of the digital network using at least a portion of the validation-message and at least a portion of the validator known to the server.

7. The validation-message of claim 6, wherein the server generates a local-authentication-token by inputting at least a portion of the client-identifier included in the validation-message and at least a portion of the validator known to the server into a one-way function, the server compares the local-authentication-token with the authentication-token of the validation-message and, responsive to the local-authentication-token and the authentication-token of the validation-message being the same, determines the given client-receiver is a valid client-receiver of the subscriber television system.

8. In a subscriber television system having a headend, a server, which is remote from the headend, and a plurality of client-receivers, a validation-message embodied in a computer readable medium for validating a given client-receiver of a plurality of client-receivers with the server, the validation-message comprising:

a client-identifier associated with the given client-receiver; and

an authentication-token, wherein the authentication-token is produced by providing an input to a one-way function, wherein the input to the one-way function includes at least a portion of a validator and at least a portion of the client-identifier, wherein the validator is transmitted from the headend to both the server and the given client-receiver, and wherein responsive to the server receiving the validation-message, the server determines whether the given client-receiver is a valid client-receiver of the subscriber television system using at least a portion of the authentication-token and at least a portion of the validator.

9. In digital network having a server and a plurality of client-receivers, a client-receiver of the plurality of client-receivers comprising:

a memory having a validator and a client-identifier stored therein, wherein the validator is known to multiple client-receivers of the plurality of client-receivers;

a processor in communication with the memory, the processor adapted to generate an authentication-token using at least a portion of the validator and at least a portion of the client-identifier as inputs to a one-way function and adapted to include the authentication-token in a validation-message; and

a transmitter in communication with the server, the transmitter adapted to transmit the validation-message.

10. The client-receiver of claim 9, further including:

an input port adapted to receive instances of services from a headend of a subscriber television system;

a cryptographic device adapted to decrypt the received instances of services; and

a secure-element having the processor and the memory included therein, wherein the memory is accessible to only the processor.

11. The client-receiver of claim 9, wherein the validator includes system parameters.

12. The client-receiver of claim 9, wherein the validator a shared-secret.

13. The client-receiver of claim 12, wherein multiple client-receivers of the plurality of client-receivers know the shared-secret.

14. The client-receiver of claim 9, wherein the content of the validation-message includes the client-identifier, and the client-identifier is a public-key of a private-key/public-key pair belonging to the client-receiver.

15. The client-receiver of claim 14, wherein the content of the validation-message includes a second authentication-token, the second authentication-token being the output of the one-way function having at least a portion of the client-identifier as an input, and wherein at least a portion of the second authentication-token is input into the one-way function to generate the first authentication-token.

16. The client-receiver of claim 9, wherein the validation-message is defined by message-content and the authentication-token and the validation-message is carried in a first message and a second message, the first message having the authentication-token included therein, and the second message having the content included therein.

17. The client-receiver of claim 9, wherein the one-way function is a hash function.

18. A method of validating a client-receiver in a digital network the digital network having a headend, a plurality of client-receivers, and a server in communication with the headend and with the plurality of client-receivers, the server remote from the headend, the method implemented in the server and comprising the steps of:

receiving a validation-message from a particular client-receiver of the plurality of client-receivers, the validation-message including a content and a first authentication-token;

generating a second authentication-token, wherein the second authentication-token is the output of a one-way function having at least a portion of a validator and at least a portion of the content of the validation-message as inputs, wherein the validator is known to the particular client-receiver and other client-receivers of the plurality of client-receivers; and

determining whether the particular client-receiver is a valid client-receiver of the digital network using at least the first and second authentication-tokens.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the digital network is a subscriber television system, the validator is a shared-secret, and the shared-secret is implemented by the server to decrypt services of the subscriber television system.

20. The method of claim 18, further including the steps of:

receiving from a headend a secure-message having the an encrypted validator included therein;

decrypting the encrypted validator using a private-key of a private-key/public-key pair belonging to the server; and

storing the decrypted validator in a memory of a secure-element, wherein the secure-element includes a processor and the memory is accessible to only the processor, and wherein the private-key of the private-key/public-key pair belonging to the server is stored in the memory.

21. The method of claim 20, further including the steps of:

generating a local message-authenticator, wherein the local message-authenticator is output of a one-way function having at least a portion of the decrypted validator as an input;

processing a processed message-authenticator included in the secure-message with a public-key of a private-key/public-key belonging to the headend to generate a reprocessed message-authenticator; and

comparing the local message-authenticator and the reprocessed message-authenticator, wherein the steps of generating the authentication-token and determining whether the particular client-receiver is a valid client-receiver of the subscriber television system are done only if the local message-authenticator and the reprocessed message-authenticator are the same.

22. The method of claim 18, further including the steps of:

generating a second authentication-token, wherein the second authentication-token is output of a one-way function having at least a portion of the content of the validation-message as an input, wherein the content of the validation-message includes a third authentication-token; and

comparing the second authentication-token and the third authentication-token, wherein the steps of generating the first authentication-token and determining whether the particular client-receiver is a valid client-receiver of the subscriber television system are done only if the second authentication-token and the third authentication-token are the same.

23. The method of claim 18, further including the step of:

responsive to determining the particular client-receiver is valid, providing the particular client-receiver with an instance of service.

24. A digital network comprising:

a client-receiver adapted to generate a validation-message having a client-identifier and an authentication-token included therein, wherein the authentication-token is the output of a one-way function having at least a portion of a validator as an input; and

a server in communication with the client-receiver having a memory and a processor, the memory having the validator stored therein, the processor adapted to receive the validation-message and adapted to determine that the client-receiver is a valid client-receiver using at least a portion of the stored validator and at least a portion of the validation-message.