Method to upgrade content encryption

• US 20100246819A1
• Filed: 05/26/2009
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Candelore, Brant L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,057,641 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/210
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0822 using key encryption key
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8186 specially adapted to be executed by a peripheral of the client device, e.g. by a reprogrammable remote control

Abstract

Generation of secret keys is carried out in a smartcard for use by a receiver device'"'"'s main processor, or alternatively, decryption processing for selectively encrypted content is carried out in the smartcard itself in order to thwart hacking and pirating of protected video content. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.

Claims

1. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of encrypted segments that are encrypted using a predetermined encryption method;

storing the encrypted segments in a memory that is accessible by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

sending the encrypted segments to a smartcard over a smartcard interface;

at the smartcard, receiving the encrypted segments and decrypting the encrypted segments to produce decrypted segments;

sending the decrypted segments back to the processor forming part of the video content receiver device over the smartcard interface; and

storing the decrypted segments to the memory.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the encrypted segments are sent over the smartcard interface, the processor forming part of the video content receiver device encrypts the encrypted segments using a local key and after reception by the smartcard, the encrypted segments are decrypted with the local key.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein before sending the decrypted segments back to the processor forming part of the video content receiver device, the smartcard encrypts the decrypted segments with a local key and after reception by the processor forming part of the video content receiver device, the segments are decrypted with a local key.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the smartcard interface is based on the ISO 7816 standard.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the encrypted segments are part of one of a Transport Stream packet or an Internet Protocol (IP) packet.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the memory also stores non-encrypted segments and where the non-encrypted segments that are stored in memory are decrypted by a coverage decryption method.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment replacing the encrypted segment in the memory.

8. The method according to claim 2, further comprising assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment replacing the encrypted segment in the memory.

9. The method according to claim 3, further comprising assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment replacing the encrypted segment in the memory.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising sending the reassembled stream to a decoder or recording the reassembled stream to a hard disk drive.

11. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is selectively multiple encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of multiple encrypted segments that are encrypted using predetermined encryption methods;

storing encrypted segments that use one of the predetermined encryption methods in a memory that is accessible by a by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

sending the encrypted segments to a smartcard over a smartcard interface;

at the smartcard, receiving the encrypted segments and decrypting the encrypted segments to produce decrypted segments;

sending the decrypted segments back to the processor forming part of the video content receiver device over the smartcard interface; and

storing the decrypted segments to the memory.

12. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of encrypted segments that are encrypted using a predetermined encryption method;

storing the encrypted segments in a memory that is accessible by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

at the processor forming part of the video content receiver device, receiving a key from a smartcard;

the processor applying the key to decrypt the encrypted segments and bypassing a hardware decryption engine that comprises a part of the video content receiver device; and

storing the decrypted segments to the memory.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein before the key is sent to the processor, the smartcard encrypts the key using a local key and after reception by the processor, the key is decrypted with the local key.

14. The method according to claim 12, where the memory comprises a unified memory further comprising assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment replacing the encrypted segment in the unified memory.

15. The method according to claim 12, further comprising sending the reassembled stream to one of a decoder for viewing or a hard disk drive for storing.

16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the smartcard passing a portion of the decryption algorithm to the video content receiver device'"'"'s processor.

17. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the smartcard passing the decryption algorithm to the video content receiver device'"'"'s processor.

18. The method according to claim 12, wherein the applying the key comprises applying the key as a keystream to the encrypted segments of content making the encrypted content clear.

19. The method according to claim 12, wherein the applying the key comprises generating a keystream so that the keystream may be applied to more bytes of encrypted segments to render them clear.

20. The method according to claim 12, wherein the applying the key comprises using the key with a symmetrical encryption algorithm which is executed by the processor to render the encrypted segments clear.

21. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of encrypted segments that are encrypted using a predetermined encryption method;

storing at least the encrypted segments in a memory that is accessible by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

at a smartcard having an internal processor, generating a content decryption key by applying an algorithm to an entitlement control message (ECM) as processed on the smartcard;

passing the content decryption key to the video content receiver device'"'"'s processor;

bypassing a hardware decryption engine residing in the receiver device;

at the receiver device'"'"'s processor, in software decrypting the encrypted segments to produce decrypted segments;

storing the decrypted segments to the memory;

assembling the stream of video content with the decrypted segment replacing the encrypted segment in the unified memory; and

sending the reassembled stream to a decoder.

22. A smartcard for use in a pay-TV receiver, comprising:

a smartcard housing cryptographic processing circuits;

the smartcard cryptographic processing circuits receiving encrypted segments of selectively encrypted video content in an external memory that is accessible by the smartcard;

where at the smartcard'"'"'s internal cryptographic processing circuits, the encrypted segments are decrypted to produce decrypted segments that are stored to the external memory where they will replace encrypted segments to create a clear stream of video content.

23. A smartcard for use in a pay-TV receiver, comprising:

a smartcard housing a cryptographic processor and memory;

the smartcard processor generating a key value by applying an algorithm to an entitlement control message (ECM) as processed by the cryptographic processor on the smartcard; and

the smartcard passing the key value to a pay-TV receiver device'"'"'s processor to carry out content decryption in software and bypassing a hardware decryption engine located in the pay-TV receiver.

24. A decryption method, comprising:

at a video content receiver device, receiving a stream of digital video content which is multiple selectively encrypted such that the digital video content contains a plurality of multiple encrypted segments that are encrypted using multiple predetermined encryption methods;

storing one of the encrypted segments using a predetermined encryption method and non-encrypted segments in a memory that is accessible by a processor forming part of the video content receiver device;

at the processor forming a part of the video content receiver device, receiving a key value from a detachable smartcard;

bypassing a hardware decryption engine in the video content receiver;

the processor using the key value in a software process in one of the following ways;

applying the key value as a keystream to the encrypted segments of content making them clear,

generating a keystream so that the keystream may be applied to encrypted segments to render them clear,

using the key with a symmetric encryption algorithm which is executed by the processor to render the encrypted segments clear, and

storing the decrypted segments to the memory.