METHOD FOR PERSONALIZING AN AUTHENTICATION TOKEN

• US 20110093708A1
• Filed: 12/27/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Auth Token LLC (Jeffrey M. Gross)
• Original Assignee: Prism Technologies LLC (Prism Technologies Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Buck, Peter, Newport, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 8,375,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/46 by designing passwords or checking the strength of passwords
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40975 using encryption therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0863 involving passwords or one-time passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for using one-time keys in a packet data network H04L63/067
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 involving random numbers or seeds

Abstract

An authentication token using a smart card that an organisation would issue to its customer, the smart card having a processor for executing a software application that is responsive to a user input to generate a one-time password as an output. The smart card co-operates with an interface device for inputting the user input and displaying the one-time password. The authentication token may be used in combination with a remote authentication server for validation of the password and hence authentication of the user.

Claims

1. A method for personalizing an authentication token responsive to a user input from an authentication token interface device to generate a secure password comprising:

requesting from the authentication token, by a personalization device in communication with the authentication token, a serial number of the authentication token;

establishing an encrypted session between the authentication token and the personalization device upon receipt of the serial number;

sending, by the personalization device to the authentication token, an initial seed value and an initial secret key responsive to authentication of the serial number;

storing, by the personalization device, the initial seed value and the initial secret key; and

,

transferring, by the personalization device to the authentication token, the initial seed value and the initial secret key used by the authentication token to generate the secure password.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the secret key is initialized by exchanging messages with the personalization device using a key exchange protocol.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the key exchange protocol uses the Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the authentication token is further personalized by initializing the seed value stored in a memory in the authentication token to generate a key for use in generating the secure password.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein data exchanged between the authentication token and the personalization device for use in generating the secure password is stored by the personalization device for subsequent transfer to a third party.