System and method of owner application control of electronic devices

• US 20050257209A1
• Filed: 04/29/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Adams, Neil P., Kirkup, Michael G., Little, Herbert A., Owen, Russell N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,815,100 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1458 by checking the subject access rights
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/51 at application loading time, e.g. accepting, rejecting, starting or inhibiting executable software based on integrity or source reliability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• 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 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/71 to assure secure computing or processing of information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading

Abstract

Systems and methods of owner application control of an electronic device are provided. Owner application control information is stored on the electronic device and/or one or more remote servers. Owner application control information is consulted to determine if one or more required applications are available for execution on the electronic device. If not, one or more required applications not available are downloaded and installed. This could be in a manner transparent to the user of the electronic device. If one or more required applications are not available on the electronic device, the device can be functionally disabled in whole, or in part, until one or more required applications are available.

Claims

1. A method of owner application control for an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:

verifying that an application listed in a required list is available for execution on the device,

if the application in the required list is not verified as available, initiating download and installation of the application from an external application source, and

disabling at least one operation of the device until the application on the required list is available for execution on the device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving the required list from an external list source.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of receiving an update to the required list from the external list source or from a second external source and updating the required list based upon the received update.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of receiving an update to the required list from the external application source or from a second external source and updating the required list based upon the received update.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the receiving an update step and updating the required list steps occur prior to the verification step.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of requesting the update from the external source or from the second external source.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of prior to allowing installation of an application, checking if a to-be installed application is on an allowed list, and initiating installation of the to-be installed application only if the to-be installed application is on the allowed list.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of receiving the allowed list from an external list source.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of receiving an update to the allowed list from the external list source or from a second external source and updating the required list based upon the received update.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of receiving an update to the allowed list from an external list source and updating the required list based upon the received update.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of receiving an application installation request for a to-be installed application, transmitting identification information associated with the to-be installed application to an external computer system and initiating installation of the to-be installed application only if an approval response is received from the external computer system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the approval response comprises an application source for use by the device in downloading the to-be installed application.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of downloading the to-be installed application from the application source.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of consulting an excluded list on the external computer system based upon the transmitted identification information, transmitting an approval response if the to-be installed application associated with the transmitted identification information is not on the excluded list, and transmitting a denial response if the to-be installed application associated with the transmitted identification information is on the excluded list.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the required list lists a plurality of applications, wherein the verification step is performed with respect to each application listed in the required list, wherein the download and installation initiation step is performed for each application in the required list not verified as available and wherein the disablement step occurs until each application in the required list is available for execution.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an operation request from an application;

determining whether the requested operation is allowed to be performed by the application based upon a stored authorization record and an application identifier associated with the application; and

allowing the application to perform the requested operation only if the requested operation is determined to be allowed to be performed by the application.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the requested operation is selected from the group consisting of:

opening a connection, accessing a telephone API, accessing local memory and communicating with another executing application.

18. One or more computer readable media storing instructions that upon execution by an electronic device cause the device to control application installation by performing the steps of claim 1.

19. A data signal that is transmitted using a communication channel, wherein the data signal includes the required list of claim 1.

20. A method of owner application control for an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a required list request from a first electronic device for a list of one or more applications required by the owner of the first electronic device for full operation of the device, wherein the required list request comprises an identifier associated with the first electronic device;

determining the required list based upon the identifier in the received required list request; and

transmitting the determined required list to the first electronic device.

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

receiving an allowed list request from a second electronic device for a list of one or more applications allowed by the owner of the second electronic device to be installed on the electronic device, wherein the request comprises an identifier associated with the electronic device;

determining the allowed list based upon the identifier in the received allowed list request received for the second electronic device; and

transmitting the determined allowed list to the second electronic device.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first and second electronic devices are wireless mobile communications devices.

23. A method of owner application control for an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an application installation request from an electronic device, wherein the application installation request comprises an application identifier associated with an application that a user wants to install on the electronic device;

determining whether to allow the installation of the application that the user wants to install based upon the application identifier and owner control information;

transmitting an installation authorization if the application that the user wants to install is determined to be allowable; and

transmitting an installation denial if the application that the user wants to install is determined not to be allowable.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the transmitted installation authorization or denial is determined based upon owner control information that comprises an allowed list identifying one or more applications that the owner of the electronic device has selected to be allowed for installation.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the owner control information further comprises an excluded list identifying one or more application that the owner of the electronic device has selected not to be allowed for installation.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the determining step comprises checking if the application identifier corresponds to an application identified on the allowed list.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the application identifier comprises a hash value derived from the application that the user wants to install.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the owner control information further comprises an excluded list identifying one or more applications that the owner of the electronic device has selected to be not allowed for installation.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the determining step comprises checking if the application identifier corresponds to an application identified on the excluded list.

30. A system for owner application installation control of an electronic device, comprising:

an owner control information store configured to store owner control information comprising a required list identifying one or more applications required for full operation of the electronic device;

initialization processor instructions that are configured to consult owner control information in the owner control information store in order to verify if an application in the required list is available for execution on the electronic device;

an application loader module that is invoked by the initialization instructions when the application in the required list is not available for execution and that downloads the application from an external application source and installs it on the electronic device; and

operation control instructions that are configured to disable at least one operation of the electronic device until the application loader module completes installation of the application.

31. An apparatus of owner control of electronic devices, comprising:

means for storing, at an electronic device, owner control information having a list of one or more applications required by the owner for full operation of the device and a list of one or more applications allowed by the owner for installation on the device;

means for initializing the device by verifying that each application on the required list is available for execution on the device and for requesting installation of applications on the required list not verified as available for execution;

means for installing applications that are requested by the user if the to-be installed application corresponds to an application on the allowed list or that are requested for installation by the initializing means; and

means for disabling at least one operation of the device until all applications on the required list are available for execution on the device, thereby preventing full operation of the electronic device.

32. A method of owner control of operations on an electronic device,

receiving an operation request from an application;

determining whether the requested operation is allowed to be performed by the application based upon a stored authorization record and an application identifier associated with the application; and

allowing the application to perform the requested operation only if the requested operation is determined to be allowed to be performed by the application.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the requested operation is selected from the group consisting of:

opening a connection, accessing a telephone API, accessing local memory and communicating with another executing application.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the requested operation is opening a network connection or opening a local data connection.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the application identifier is a hash value associated with the application.

36. The method of claim 32, further comprising the step of receiving one or more authorization records from an external source.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising the steps of receiving an update to at least one authorization record from the external source or from a second external source and updating the at least one authorization record based upon the received update.

38. The method of claim 32, further comprising the steps of receiving an update to at least one authorization record from an external source and updating the at least one authorization record based upon the received update.

39. One or more computer readable media storing instructions that upon execution by an electronic device cause the device to control application operations by performing the steps of claim 32.

40. A method for designating owner control of application operations for an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an operation indication of one or more operations associated with a particular application;

generating an authorization record based upon the received operation indication and the particular application;

storing the generated authorization record;

receiving a device indication of one or more electronic devices subject to owner control;

receiving a correspondence indication that associates the received device indication with one or more stored authorization records; and

communicating one or more stored authorization records to one or more electronic devices based upon the received device indication and the received correspondence indication.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising the step of providing an interface via which an administrator can designate one or more operations associated with a particular application.

42. The method of claim 40, further comprising the step of providing an interface via which an administrator can designate one or more electronic devices subject to owner control and a correspondence between the designated one or more electronic devices and one or more stored authorization records.