Secure seed provisioning

• US 20090006858A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RSA Security LLC (Symphony Technology Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Ciaffi, Marco, Duane, William M., Silva, Eric A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,750 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 involving random numbers or seeds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/321 involving a third party or a trusted authority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3234 involving additional secure or trusted devices, e.g. TPM, smartcard, USB or software token network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using an additional device in a packet data network H04L63/0853

Abstract

A method is used for secure seed provisioning. Data is derived from inherent randomness in an authentication device. Based on the data, the authentication device is provisioned with a seed.

Claims

1. A method for use in secure seed provisioning, the method comprising the steps of:

deriving data from inherent randomness in an authentication device; and

based on the data, provisioning the authentication device with a seed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the seed comprises a symmetric key.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the inherent randomness is based on a powerup characteristic of the authentication device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the inherent randomness is based on an electronic component characteristic of the authentication device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the inherent randomness is based on an amount of time between unsynchronized events in the authentication device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

starting to increment a counter when power is applied to the authentication device,

wherein the data is based on a value of the counter.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

further deriving the data from a source of randomness external to the authentication device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

outputting an intermediate level value to a recipient, the intermediate level value being required for the recipient to calculate the seed.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving a value from the inherent randomness; and

outputting the value to a recipient, the value being required for the recipient to calculate the seed.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

outputting a first value to a first recipient, the first value alone being insufficient to allow calculation of the seed; and

at the first recipient, calculating the seed from the first value and a second value already available to the first recipient, the second value being unavailable to a second recipient.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving the seed from a unique value provided in the authentication device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the inherent randomness to affect a value of a counter in the authentication device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

avoiding resetting the value of a counter in the authentication device to zero when the authentication device is reset.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving the seed from a source of randomness that is external to the authentication device, the source of randomness being unpredictable and hardware based.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving the seed using encryption.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving the seed from a unique value programmed into the authentication device at the time of chip fabrication.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

controlling access to values such that only one or more authorized entities outside the authentication device have sufficient information to calculate the seed.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving the seed based on a mapping between a chip serial number and a unique value programmed into the authentication device at the time of chip fabrication.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deriving the seed based on a mapping between a serial number of the authentication device and a value based on an external source of randomness.

20. A method for use in secure seed provisioning, the method comprising the steps of:

deriving data from a secret number embedded in multiple authentication devices including a first authentication device, and from a unique number embedded in the first authentication device only; and

based on the data, provisioning the first authentication device with a seed.

21. A method for use in secure seed provisioning, the method comprising the steps of:

deriving a first number from an internal source of randomness;

receiving a second number based on an external source of randomness;

receiving a serial number;

internally retrieving a non-unique secret key;

deriving a third number from the first number, serial number, and the non-unique secret key;

externally exposing the third number; and

deriving a key from the second and third numbers.