METHOD AND DEVICE FOR EXECUTION CONTROL FOR PROTECTED INTERNAL FUNCTIONS AND APPLICATIONS EMBEDDED IN MICROCIRCUIT CARDS FOR MOBILE TERMINALS

• US 20120149327A1
• Filed: 12/09/2011
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDEMIA France (Advent International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oberthur Technologies SA (Advent International Corporation)
• Inventors: DENIS, Sylvestre, RABOISSON, Aurlien
• Granted Patent: US 9,811,822 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/410
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3229 Use of the SIM of a M-device as secure element
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

The invention in particular relates to the execution control of protected internal functions and applications embedded in a mobile terminal microcircuit card. The control of a protected internal function is directly carried out in the microcircuit card. After having detected (400) a command for placing the card on standby, on the basis of an item of information received from a mobile terminal into which is connected the card, at least one indication relative to the execution of the protected internal function is analyzed (415). If the protected internal function is liable to be affected by the execution of the command for placing on standby, the execution of the command for placing on standby is deferred (410).

Claims

1. A method for execution control of at least one protected internal function embedded in a microcircuit device (150) adapted to be used in cooperation with a mobile terminal (100), this method being characterized in that it is implemented in said microcircuit device and that it comprises the following steps,

detecting (400) a command for placing said microcircuit device on standby, said command for placing on standby being detected on the basis of an item of information received from a mobile terminal into which is connected said microcircuit device;

analyzing (415) at least one indication relative to the execution of said at least one protected internal function; and

,

if said at least one protected internal function is liable to be affected by the execution of said command for placing on standby, deferring execution (410) of said command for placing on standby.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the following steps,

setting a state variable (325) to a first value on launching said at least one protected internal function;

and,

setting said state variable to a second value (325) when the execution of said at least one protected internal function has terminated or when said protected internal function is reinitialized;

said analyzing step comprising a step of analyzing the value of said state variable.

3. A method according to claim 1, in which the execution of said command for placing on standby is controlled by said at least one protected internal function.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a step (405) of comparing a level of standby requested associated with said command for placing on standby with a standby state of said microcircuit device.

5. A method according to claim 1, said microcircuit device or said mobile terminal being provided with short-range wireless communication means (130), said microcircuit device comprising an embedded protected application making use of said short-range wireless communication means and of said protected internal function, the method further comprising the following steps,

receiving (315) an item of authentication data for the execution of said protected application, said item of authentication data being received from said mobile terminal;

comparing (320) said received item of authentication data with at least one item of data stored in said microcircuit device;

if said received item of authentication data corresponds to said at least one stored item of data and if said protected application is invoked, verifying (335) the validity of said received item of authentication data according to at least one criterion dynamically defined in said microcircuit device; and

if said received item of authentication data is valid, executing (340) said protected application.

6. A method according to claim 5, in which said protected internal function is a countdown function, the method further comprising, if said received item of authentication data corresponds to said at least one stored item of data, a step (325) of invoking said countdown function for a predetermined time, said verifying step comprising verifying that said time has not run out.

7. A method according to claim 6, in which said countdown function is based on a hardware clock of said microcircuit device.

8. A method according to claim 5, the method further comprising the following steps,

receiving at least one item of information from said mobile terminal to which said microcircuit device is connected, to indicate that at least one contactless access station is accessible via said short-range wireless communication means;

selecting (300) at least said protected application embedded in said microcircuit device in response to said at least one received item of information and sending at least one reference to said at least one selected application to said mobile terminal; and

,

receiving at least one identifier of an application, said identifier corresponding to a reference to said embedded protected application.

9. A method according to claim 1 in which said microcircuit device is a microcircuit card.

10. A computer program comprising instructions adapted for the carrying out of each of the steps of the method according to claim 1 when said program is executed on a computer.

11. A device comprising means adapted for the implementation of each of the steps of the method according to claim 1.

16. An identification card of a subscriber to a mobile telephone network comprising the device according to claim 11.

17. A mobile terminal integrating the device according to claim 11.

18. A method according to claim 2, further comprising a step (405) of comparing a level of standby requested associated with said command for placing on standby with a standby state of said microcircuit device.

19. A method according to claim 1, said microcircuit device or said mobile terminal being provided with short-range wireless communication means (130), said microcircuit device comprising an embedded protected application making use of said short-range wireless communication means and of said protected internal function, the method further comprising the following steps,

receiving (315) an item of authentication data for the execution of said protected application, said item of authentication data being received from said mobile terminal;

comparing (320) said received item of authentication data with at least one item of data stored in said microcircuit device;

if said received item of authentication data corresponds to said at least one stored item of data and if said protected application is invoked, verifying (335) the validity of said received item of authentication data according to at least one criterion dynamically defined in said microcircuit device; and

if said received item of authentication data is valid, executing (340) said protected application.

20. A method according to claim 6, the method further comprising the following steps,

receiving at least one item of information from said mobile terminal to which said microcircuit device is connected, to indicate that at least one contactless access station is accessible via said short-range wireless communication means;

selecting (300) at least said protected application embedded in said microcircuit device in response to said at least one received item of information and sending at least one reference to said at least one selected application to said mobile terminal; and

,

receiving at least one identifier of an application, said identifier corresponding to a reference to said embedded protected application.

12. A microcircuit device for execution control of at least one protected internal function embedded in said microcircuit device (150), said microcircuit device being adapted to be used in cooperation with a mobile terminal (100), this device being characterized in that it comprises a microcontroller configured to implement the following steps,

detecting (400) a command for placing said microcircuit device on standby, said command for placing on standby being detected on the basis of an item of information received from a mobile terminal into which is connected said microcircuit device;

analyzing (415) at least one indication relative to the execution of said at least one protected internal function; and

,

if said at least one protected internal function is liable to be affected by the execution of said command for placing on standby, deferring execution (410) of said command for placing on standby.

13. A device according to claim 12, further comprising at least one memory configured to store at least one item of data relative to said at least one protected internal function.

14. A device according to claim 13 in which said microcontroller is furthermore configured for executing a cryptography algorithm protecting said at least one item of data relative to said at least one protected internal function.

15. A device according to claim 12 in which said microcontroller is furthermore configured for executing an algorithm for hardware protection of at least one component of said device.