SECURE APPLICATION SIGNING

• US 20090210702A1
• Filed: 01/28/2009
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Prasad, Srikiran, Welingkar, Bharat, Kanungo, Rajesh
• Application Number:
  US12/361,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20090210702A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/321 involving a third party or a trusted authority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating approval of an application and for making the application available for download by mobile computing devices has a first module configured to receive a user input received from a software development environment, a second module configured to initiate an application approval process based on the user input, and a third module configured to make the application available for download by mobile computing devices based on the approval process.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating approval of an application and for making the application available for download by mobile computing devices, comprising;

a first module configured to receive a user input received from a software development environment; and

a second module configured to initiate an application approval process based on the user input; and

a third module configured to make the application available for download by mobile computing devices based on the approval process.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the third module is configured to make the application available for wireless download to the mobile computing devices.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the third module is a catalog module configured to receive a user search request, provide search results representing applications available for download, and to receive a user selection of an application for download.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a certification module configured to certify the application based on at least one certification criteria.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a signing module configured to sign the application using a digital certificate.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising an application upload module configured to receive the application, wherein the application upload module is configured to upload an externally signed application in a first mode and to upload an unsigned application for signing by the signing module in a second mode.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the externally signed application is signed by a third party certification authority not operating the application upload module.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a verification module configured to verify an identity of a developer of the application.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the verification module is configured to generate a certificate for the developer based on the verification of identity of the developer.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a signing module configured to sign the application using the certificate.

11. A method of making available for download a signed application, comprising:

receiving at a server a request from a developer to initiate an application approval process;

signing the application using the server; and

storing the signed application in an application repository for download by mobile computing devices.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the server computer is operated by a manufacturer of the mobile computing devices.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of storing is performed after signing the application without manual input from a human.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving an externally signed application and uploading the externally signed application to the server, wherein the externally signed application is signed by a third party certification authority not operating the server.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising verifying an identity of the developer.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating a certificate for the developer based on the verification of identity of the developer.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the application is signed using the certificate.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising testing the application with a test module and signing the application based on a result of the test.

19. A system for interfacing with a software developer, comprising:

a first module configured to receive a request from a software developer;

a second module configured to verify the developer identity;

a third module configured to issue a signed developer certificate if the developer identity is verified;

a fourth module configured to sign an application using the certificate; and

a fifth module configured to make the signed application available for download by handheld computing devices.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the application is configured to operate on a mobile computing device, wherein a manufacturer of the mobile computing device operates the system.