Establishing a unique session key using a hardware functionality scan

• US 20070058807A1
• Filed: 09/15/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Marsh, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,436,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2129 Authenticate client device independently of the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0866 involving user or device identifiers, e.g. serial number, physical or biometrical information, DNA, hand-signature or measurable physical characteristics

Abstract

Systems and methods for independently generating a unique private session key at one or more hardware devices within a computing system using a subset of the functionality implemented in a hardware functionality scan combined with the use of a one-way mathematical function.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

creating a first unique session key based on at least one unique characteristic of a hardware device independently of the hardware device; and

requesting the hardware device create a second unique session key associated with the first private session key based on the at least one unique characteristic of the hardware device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one unique characteristic of the hardware device is stored in a table.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one unique characteristic of the hardware device is stored in a software emulation of the hardware device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one unique characteristic of the hardware device is chosen at random from the table.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the table is obfuscated.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one unique characteristic of the hardware device is retrieved by passing a seed to the software emulation of the hardware device.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the software emulation of the hardware device is obfuscated.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting is repeated each time the hardware device is started.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is repeated if the first unique session key becomes publicly known.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the first unique session key is created by passing the at least one unique characteristic of the hardware device through a one way function.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the first unique session key is created by passing the at least one unique characteristic of the hardware device through a one way function.

12. A method for independently generating a unique session key in a hardware device, comprising:

receiving a request to generate the unique session key;

receiving a question which when answered correctly uniquely identifies the hardware device;

calculating an answer to the question; and

passing the answer to a one way function to generate the unique session key.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the question is sent with a seed value which modifies the question.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the question is answered by querying the boundary shift scan area of the hardware.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the unique session key is used to a create at least one private encryption key.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one private encryption key is used to decrypt at least a portion of a data stream.

17. A unique session key generation system for independently generating a first unique session key and a second unique session key in a CPU and a hardware device, comprising:

a hardware device driver executing in the CPU providing access to the hardware device, the hardware device driver further including;

a hardware functionality scan component for generating an answer to one or more questions and for sending the question to the hardware device;

a one way function for generating the first unique session key using the answer to the one or more questions;

the hardware device further including;

a unique session key component for receiving the one or more questions and generating one or more answers, the one or more answers being passed to a one way function to generate the second private session key.

18. The unique session key generation system of claim 17, the unique session key component further comprising non-volatile storage for storing the second unique session key.

19. The unique session key generation system of claim 17, further comprising the hardware driver executing in a trusted location.

20. The unique session key generation system of claim 17, further comprising the hardware driver being revoked and renewed if the one or more questions become publicly known.