SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UPDATING MESSAGE TRUST STATUS

• US 20090210718A1
• Filed: 02/13/2009
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited), Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: BROWN, Michael K., LITTLE, Herbert A., BROWN, Michael S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,385,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/24 Key scheduling, i.e. generating round keys or sub-keys for block encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/72 Signcrypting, i.e. digital signing and encrypting simultaneously
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3265 using certificate chains, trees or paths; Hierarchical trust model

Abstract

Systems and methods for processing encoded messages within a wireless communications system are disclosed. A server within the wireless communications system performs signature verification of an encoded message and provides, together with the message, an indication to the mobile device that the message has been verified. In addition, the server provides supplemental information, such as, for example, a hash of the certificate or certificate chain used to verify the message, to the device, to enable the device to perform additional checks on the certificate, such as, for example, validity checks, trust checks, strength checks, or the like.

Claims

1. A method for processing encoded messages comprising:

receiving, at a server, an encoded message sent from an e-mail sender and addressed to a recipient device;

processing said encoded message to verify a signature of the encoded message at said server; and

,

providing the processed message to the recipient device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing further comprises providing an indication of a result of said processing to the recipient device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the processing further comprises processing the encoded message such the processed message is below a predetermined threshold size.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the indication verifies that the server has verified the signature of the encoded message and that a size of the encoded message size was above the predetermined threshold size.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the indication verifies that the server has verified the signature of the encoded message.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising providing supplemental information from the encoded message to the recipient device.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the supplemental information comprises a hash of a certificate used to sign the encoded message.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the supplemental information comprises a hash of a certificate chain including the certificate used to sign the encoded message.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the processing comprises applying an encryption algorithm such that the processed message is encrypted.

10. A method for processing encoded messages processed by a server comprising:

receiving, at a recipient device, a processed message and an indication of a result of the processing from the server; and

,

displaying, on the recipient device, the processed message and the indication to a user.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the indication comprises a verification of a signature of the encoded message.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the receiving further comprises receiving supplemental information with the processed message and processing the supplemental information to verify the processed message.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the processing comprises checking the trust, validity or strength of a certificate used to sign the encoded message.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the supplemental information comprises a hash of the certificate used to sign the encoded message.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the processing the supplemental information comprises looking up a certificate used to sign the encoded message and performing additional checks based on the certificate.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the indication comprises verification of a signature of the encoded message.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein the indication further comprises size related information and the recipient device communicates to the user that the server verified the encoded message as the encoded message was larger than a predetermined threshold size.

18. The method of claim 10 further comprising decrypting, at the recipient device, the received processed message and the indication.

19. A computer program product comprising program code stored in program memory, the program code operative on a mobile communications device to:

receive an indication of a result of processing an encoded message and a processed encoded message;

process the processed message and the indication; and

,

display the processed message and the indication to a user.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the indication comprises a verification of a signature of the encoded message.

21. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein code is further operative to receive supplemental information with the processed message and to process the supplemental information to verify the processed message.

22. The computer program product of claim 21 wherein the code is further operative to process the supplemental information by checking the trust, validity or strength of a certificate used to sign the encoded message.

23. The computer program product of claim 21 wherein the code is further operative to process the supplemental information by looking up a certificate used to sign the encoded message and performing additional checks based on the certificate.

24. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the indication comprises verification of a signature of the encoded message.

25. The computer program product of claim 19 wherein the indication further comprises size related information and the code is further operative communicate to the user that the encoded message was verified before receipt by the mobile communications device as the encoded message was larger than a predetermined threshold size.

26. A computer program product comprising program code stored in program memory, the program code operative on a server to receive an encoded message sent from an e-mail sender and addressed to a recipient device;

process said encoded message to verify a signature of the encoded message at said server; and

,

provide the processed message to the recipient device.

27. The computer program product of claim 26 wherein the code is further operative to provide an indication of a result of said processing to the recipient device.

28. The computer program product of claim 27 wherein the code is further operative to process the encoded message such the processed message is below a predetermined threshold size.

29. The computer program product of claim 28 wherein the indication confirms that the server has verified the signature of the encoded message and that a size of the encoded message size was above the predetermined threshold size.

30. The computer program product of claim 27 wherein the indication verifies that the server has verified the signature of the encoded message.

31. The computer program product of claim 26 wherein the code is further operative to provide supplemental information from the encoded message to the recipient device.

32. The computer program product of claim 31 wherein the supplemental information comprises a hash of a certificate used to sign the encoded message.

33. The computer program product of claim 32 wherein the supplemental information comprises a hash of a certificate chain including the certificate used to sign the encoded message.

34. The computer program product of claim 26 wherein the code is further operative to apply an encryption algorithm such that the processed message is encrypted.