VERIFICATION OF SERIALIZATION CODES

• US 20140337984A1
• Filed: 05/13/2013
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Simske, Steven J., Sturgill, Malgorzata M., Vans, Marie
• Granted Patent: US 9,027,147 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

An example apparatus may include a processor and a memory device including computer program code. The memory device and the computer program code may, with the processor, cause the apparatus to provide modified serialization codes for a first entity in a serialization flow to replace existing serialization codes for the first entity. In various examples, the modified serialization codes may have a representation of at least two different characters, and a number of instances of one of the characters in the representation of the modified serialization codes may be different from a number of instances of the one of the characters in the representation of the existing serialization codes. The memory device and the computer program code may further cause the apparatus to receive serialization codes from a second entity, the second entity being downstream in the serialization flow from the first entity; compare serialization codes from the second entity with the modified serialization codes; and verify the serialization codes from the second entity by determining if the serialization codes from the second entity are compatible with the modified serialization codes.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device including computer program code, the memory device and the computer program code, with the processor, for causing the apparatus to perform at least the following;

provide modified serialization codes for a first entity in a serialization flow to replace existing serialization codes for the first entity,

wherein the modified serialization codes have a representation of at least two different characters, and

wherein a number of instances of one of the characters in the representation of the modified serialization codes is different from a number of instances of the one of the characters in the representation of the existing serialization codes;

receive serialization codes from a second entity, the second entity being downstream in the serialization flow from the first entity;

compare serialization codes from the second entity with the modified serialization codes; and

verify the serialization codes from the second entity by determining if the serialization codes from the second entity are compatible with the modified serialization codes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the modified serialization codes are represented as binary strings of 0'"'"'s and 1'"'"'s.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the number of instances of 1 in the representation of the modified serialization codes is greater than the number of instances of 1 in the representation of the existing serialization codes.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the serialization codes from the second entity are compatible with the modified serialization codes when the serialization codes for the second entity could be achieved from the modified serialization codes.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the modified serialization codes are provided to the first entity in response to an indication that the existing serialization codes have been compromised to an untrusted entity.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the serialization codes received from the second entity are serialization codes received by the second entity from another entity in the serialization flow.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the another entity is the first entity.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving an indication that existing serialization codes for a first entity in a serialization flow have been compromised to an untrusted entity;

providing modified serialization codes for the first entity to replace the existing serialization codes, wherein the modified serialization codes have a representation of at least two different characters, and wherein a number of instances of one of the characters in the representation of the modified serialization codes is different from a number of instances of the one of the characters in the representation of the existing serialization codes; and

verifying compatibility of serialization codes received from a second entity with the modified serialization codes, the second entity being downstream of the first entity.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the modified serialization codes are represented as binary strings of 0'"'"'s and 1'"'"'s.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the number of instances of 1 in the representation of the modified serialization codes is greater than the number of instances of 1 in the representation of the existing serialization codes.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the serialization codes from the second entity are compatible with the modified serialization codes when the serialization codes from the second entity could be achieved from the modified serialization codes.

12. A computer program product, embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

computer code for providing modified serialization codes for a first entity in a serialization flow to replace existing serialization codes for the first entity,

wherein the modified serialization codes have a representation of at least two different characters, and

wherein a number of instances of one of the characters in the representation of the modified serialization codes is different from a number of instances of the one of the characters in the representation of the existing serialization codes;

computer code for comparing serialization codes from a second entity with the modified serialization codes, the second entity being downstream in the serialization flow from the first entity; and

computer code for verifying the serialization codes from the second entity by determining if the serialization codes from the second entity are compatible with the modified serialization codes.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the modified serialization codes are represented as binary strings of 0'"'"'s and 1'"'"'s.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the number of instances of 1 in the representation of the modified serialization codes is greater than the number of instances of 1 in the representation of the existing serialization codes.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the serialization codes from the second entity are compatible with the modified serialization codes when the serialization codes from the second entity could be achieved from the modified serialization codes.