Secure method and system for biometric verification

• US 20050138392A1
• Filed: 12/24/2003
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Irdeto B.V. (MultiChoice Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Irdeto Canada Corporation (MultiChoice Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Main, Alec, Johnson, Harold J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,797,549 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/14 against software analysis or reverse engineering, e.g. by obfuscation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/043 of tables, e.g. lookup, substitution or mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/16 Obfuscation or hiding, e.g. involving white box
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/002 Countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms network architectures or network communication protocols for protection against malicious traffic H04L63/1441
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861

Abstract

There is a need in the computer software and data industries to protect content from unauthorized access to private information. Alphanumeric passwords have been shown to offer very weak protection. Biometrics (personal traits such as fingerprints and hand-written signatures) offer superior protection, but still have a number of weaknesses. The most significant weakness is that there is no existing way to protect the stored biometric data itself; and once a person'"'"'s fingerprint data has been obtained by an attacker, the use of that fingerprint can no longer be considered secure. The invention solves the problem by securing the access software application that manages the biometric data using tamper-resistant encoding techniques. These tamper-resistant encoding techniques include: data-flow, control-flow, mass-data and white-box encoding.

Claims

1. A method of biometric verification comprising the steps of:

establishing parameters of a software application;

generating a biometric template from a set of user'"'"'s initialization biometric data;

generating an access software application based on said software application parameters and said biometric template; and

securing said access software application using tamper-resistant software techniques;

thereby allowing said access software application to be stored locally, yet be secure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of generating a biometric template comprises the steps of:

querying a user to input multiple initialization copies of a biometric feature;

reading said multiple initialization copies; and

calculating a biometric template based on said multiple initialization copies.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said step of calculating comprises the step of:

calculating a biometric template using pattern recognition techniques.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

storing said biometric template in a format different than that required at the input to said access software application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said access software application is operable to perform the steps of:

challenging said user to input an access copy of said biometric feature;

comparing said input access copy of said biometric feature to said biometric template, and responding to said input access copy being a match by performing the steps of;

generating a secure password from said biometric template; and

updating said biometric template;

otherwise, generating an incorrect password.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said step of generating a secure password comprises the step of generating a high-quality cryptographic key.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said step of generating a secure password comprises the step of generating the private key of a public/private key pair.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein said access software application is operable to generate different secure passwords corresponding to different verification thresholds.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

encoding said access software application using data flow encoding.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing said access software application comprises the step of:

obscuring the data in said biometric template.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein said step of procuring comprises the step of:

encoding the data flow in said access software application into a domain which does not have a corresponding semantic structure, to increase the tamper-resistance and obscurity of said access software application.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

encoding said access software application using control flow encoding.

14. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing said access software application comprises the step of:

obscuring said step of comparing in said access software application.

16. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing comprises the steps of:

dispersing subsequences of instructions within said access software application into a plurality of locations;

merging multiple dispersed subsequences into single blocks of code; and

selecting said subsequences of instructions from merged blocks of code for either functionally effective or decoy execution, as needed, to separate the observable operation of resulting code from the intent of the original software during execution.

17. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

adding fake-robust control transfers to said access software application, to increase the tamper-resistance of said access software application.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

encoding said access software application using mass data encoding.

19. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

encoding said biometric template, using mass-data encoding techniques.

20. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

responding to a request to store a data value at a virtual address by;

mapping said virtual address onto a randomly selected actual address; and

storing said data value in a memory location indexed by said actual address.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of securing comprises the step of:

encoding said access software application using white box encoding.

22. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing comprises the steps of:

representing at least one algorithmic step or component as a table; and

encoding said table as a nonlinear bijection.

23. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of securing comprises the steps of:

identifying functions and transforms substantive to the targeted software program;

generating new functions and transforms which alter the processing activity visible to the attacker; and

replacing those identified functions and transforms with the new functions and transforms in the software program.

24. The method of claim 1, in which the level of obscurity is sufficient to make attacks on stored biometric and template prohibitively expensive for attackers.

25. The method of claim 1, in which said step of securing is performed after said step of establishing parameters of a software application, and said step of securing comprises the step of:

securing said access software application by applying tamper-resistant software techniques to said parameters.

11. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

26. An electronic device operable for biometric verification comprising:

means for establishing parameters of a software application;

means for generating a biometric template from a set of user'"'"'s initialization biometric data;

means for generating an access software application based on said software application parameters and said biometric template; and

means for securing said access software application using tamper-resistant software techniques.

27. (canceled)

28. (canceled)

29. (canceled)

30. A computer readable memory medium for storing software code executable to perform the method steps of:

establishing parameters of a software application;

generating a biometric template from a set of user'"'"'s initialization biometric data;

generating an access software application based on said software application parameters and said biometric template; and

securing said access software application using tamper-resistant software techniques;

thereby allowing said access software application to be stored locally, yet be secure.