Program execution system having authentication function

• US 7,478,433 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2004
• Issued: 01/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hashiguchi, Kazuya
• Primary Examiner(s): Colin; Carl
• Assistant Examiner(s): ABEDIN, SHANTO
• Application Number:
  US10/871,226
• Publication Number:
  US 20050028007A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,670 Days
• Field of Search: 713/187, 713/189, 713/1, 713/100, 713/191, 717/173, 717/168, 717/171, 717/172, 726/4, 726/27, 726/17, 726/26, 709/221, 709/223, 705/59, 705/67
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication

Abstract

When having received an instruction that a program should be activated, the program execution system judges whether or not the program to be activated has been updated. When the activation of the program has resulted from an update of the program, an authentication process is performed with the use of the authentication information inputted during the immediately preceding activation process.

Claims

1. A program execution system comprising:

an activating unit configured to (i) upon obtaining an execution instruction to execute a program, judge whether or not authentication information is authentic and (ii) either (a) execute the program when the authentication information is judged to be authentic or (b) not execute the program when the authentication information is not judged to be authentic;

an updating unit configured to partially update the program upon obtaining an update instruction to update the program that has been executed by the activating unit;

an update information storing unit configured to store therein update information indicating whether or not the program has been updated, wherein

every time the program, which has been executed by the activating unit, is partially updated, the updating unit causes the update information to indicate that the program has been updated, and

every time the program is executed, the activating unit causes the update information to indicate that the program has not been updated; and

an authentication information storing unit configured to store therein one or more pieces of authentication information that are inputted by a user, and input time information indicating a time when the authentication information is inputted by the user,

wherein upon obtaining the execution instruction to execute the program, the activating unit judges the obtained execution instruction to be the instruction to execute the updated program for the first time in the predetermined time period from the update performed by the updating unit, only when both of the following are satisfied;

(i) the update information indicates that the program has been updated; and

(ii) the execution instruction is obtained within a predetermined time period from the time indicated by the input time information, and

in a case where the obtained execution instruction is an instruction to execute the updated program for a first time in a predetermined time period from the update performed by the updating unit, the activating unit judges whether or not the authentication information stored in the authentication information storing unit is authentic, and

in another case where the obtained execution instruction is not the instruction to execute the updated program for the first time in the predetermined time period from the update performed by the updating unit, the activating unit obtains the authentication information from outside of the program execution system, judges whether or not the obtained authentication information is authentic, and stores the obtained authentication information into the authentication information storing unit.

2. The program execution system of claim 1, wherein

the one or more pieces of authentication information that is inputted by the user and the input time information are encrypted when stored in the authentication information storing unit.

3. The program execution system of claim 2, wherein

the one or more pieces of authentication information that is inputted by the user and the input time information are decrypted before the activating unit judges whether or not the authentication information stored in the authentication information storing unit is authentic.