Access-Control Method For Software Module And Programmable Electronic Device Therefor
First Claim
1. A method of controlling access to a programmable electronic device configured to selectively activate any of a plurality of software modules, said method comprising:
- a) classifying said plurality of software modules into software-restriction classes;
b) activating one of a plurality of access-control models;
c) receiving a request to access one of said plurality of software modules;
d) evaluating said software-restriction class for said one of said plurality of software modules and said one of said plurality of access-control models to determine whether to grant access to said one of said plurality of software modules; and
e) activating said one of said plurality of software modules when said evaluating activity determines to grant access to said one of said plurality of software modules.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A programmable electronic device (10) stores a number of cipher-text software modules (14) to which access is granted after evaluating a user'"'"'s token (55, 80, 82), a software-restriction class (58) for a requested software module (14), and/or a currently active access-control model (60). Access-control models (60) span a range from uncontrolled to highly restrictive. Models (60) become automatically activated and deactivated as users are added to and deleted from the device (10). A virtual internal user proxy that does not require users to provide tokens (80, 82) is used to enable access to modules (16) classified in a global software-restriction class (62) or when an uncontrolled-access-control model (68) is active. Both licensed modules (76) and unlicensed modules (18,78) may be loaded in the device (10). However, no keys are provided to enable decryption of unlicensed modules (18,78).
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method of controlling access to a programmable electronic device configured to selectively activate any of a plurality of software modules, said method comprising:
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a) classifying said plurality of software modules into software-restriction classes;
b) activating one of a plurality of access-control models;
c) receiving a request to access one of said plurality of software modules;
d) evaluating said software-restriction class for said one of said plurality of software modules and said one of said plurality of access-control models to determine whether to grant access to said one of said plurality of software modules; and
e) activating said one of said plurality of software modules when said evaluating activity determines to grant access to said one of said plurality of software modules. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A programmable electronic device having an access-control system configured to selectively activate any of a plurality of software modules, said device comprising:
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a memory having a plurality of software modules which have been classified into software-restriction classes;
an access-control-model-activator configured to activate one of a plurality of access-control models;
an input device configured to receive a request to access one of said plurality of software modules;
an access-control-processor configured to evaluate said software-restriction class for said one of said plurality of software modules and to evaluate said one of said plurality of access-control models to determine whether to grant access to said one of said plurality of software modules; and
a module-activator configured to activate said one of said plurality of software modules when said access-control processor determines to grant access to said one of said plurality of software modules. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification