Method, authentication medium and device for securing access to a piece of equipment

• US 20070168667A1
• Filed: 02/18/2005
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gemplus (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Gemplus (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Naccache, David
• Application Number:
  US10/588,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168667A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2115 Third party
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials
• 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

The invention relates to a device for securing access to a piece of equipment (EQP), comprising an authentication medium (CRD) which uses a reference datum and control means (CTRL) which can be used to verify the consistency between the reference datum and a biometric signature (SGN) obtained from a party requesting access. According to the invention, the reference datum comprises an encrypted version (CRYPT_SGN02) of an authentic biometric signature (SGN02) attributed to the party requesting access, and the aforementioned data consistency is verified by comprising (COMPAR) the biometric signature (SGN) obtained from a party requesting access to an authentic biometric signature (SGN02) resulting from decryption of the encrypted version (CRYPT SGN02) of said signature using a secret key (K).

Claims

1. A method of securing access to a piece of equipment, comprising:

one attribution operation supplying a reference datum to an authentication medium;

an acquisition operation obtaining, for every access request formulated by a party requesting access to the equipment, a biometric signature of said party requesting access; and

a verification step verifying, by means of the reference datum, the authenticity of the biometric signature obtained from the party requesting access, further including a prior encryption step, during which an encrypted version of at least one authentic biometric signature belonging to at least one person authorised to access the piece of equipment is created, wherein the verification step comprises a decryption operation implemented in the authentication medium which includes decrypting, by means of a secret key, the encrypted version of an authentic biometric signature supplied to said authentication medium as a reference datum during the access request, and wherein the verification step comprises a comparing operation implemented by secretly comparing the biometric signature obtained from the party requesting access during the acccess request with the authentic biometric signature that results from the decryption step.

2. An authentication medium for implementing the method according to claim 1, comprising an electronic card having at least one decryption module using a secret key.

3. An authentication medium according to claim 2, further comprising a comparison module.

4. An authentication medium according to claim 2 further comprising an encryption module.

11. An authentication medium according to claim 3 further comprising an encryption module.

5. A device for securing access to a piece of equipment, comprising:

an authentication medium which is supplied with a reference datum;

a sensor obtaining, during every access request formulated by a party requesting access to the equipment, a biometric signature of said party requesting access; and

a controller included in the authentication medium and selectively authorising the party requesting access to access the piece of equipment in accordance with the result of a verification of the authenticity of the biometric signature of the party requesting access by means of the reference datum wherein the controller comprises a decryption module and a comparison module wherein the reference datum supplied to the authentication medium comprises an encrypted version of an authentic biometric signature allegedly attributed to the party requesting access, wherein the decryption module uses a secret key by means of which it secretly reconstructs, upon each access request, the authentic biometric signature from its encrypted version and wherein the comparison module secretly compares the biometric signature obtained from the party requesting access with the reconstructed authentic biometric signature and supplies a comparison result that constitutes the result of the verification.

6. A security device according to claim 5, wherein the authentication medium is a card, equipped with a memory that cannot be read from outside, in which the secret key is stored.

7. A security device according to claim 5, further comprising at least one computer that makes up at least a part of the equipment to which the access is secured.

8. A security device according to claim 7, wherein the computer contains in its memory a plurality of personal identification codes attributed to a corresponding plurality of persons authorised to access the equipment and associated with a corresponding plurality of encrypted authentic biometric signatures for these authorised persons, and wherein the computer delivers to the identification medium when receiving an access request, the encrypted authentic biometric signature that corresponds to the identification code supplied by the party requesting access, such that a single authentication medium provides several persons with secure access to the computer.

9. A security device according to claim 5, further comprising an encryption module delivers an encrypted version of an authentic biometric signature supplied in plain form by the sensor in response to an encryption command.

10. A security device according to claim 9, wherein the secret key is a private key with a matching public key and wherein the encryption module is included in the computer and uses the public key.

12. A security device according to claim 6, further comprising at least one computer that makes up at least a part of the equipment to which the access is secured.

13. A security device according to claim 6, further comprising an encryption module that delivers an encrypted version of an authentic biometric signature supplied in plain form by the sensor in response to an encryption command.

14. A security device according to claim 7, further comprising an encryption module that delivers an encrypted version of an authentic biometric signature supplied in plain form by the sensor in response to an encryption command.

15. A security device according to claim 8, further comprising an encryption module that delivers an encrypted version of an authentic biometric signature supplied in plain form by the sensor in response to an encryption command.