Secure command method and device for remote maintenance terminal

• US 8,244,413 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2009
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Bovet, Michel, Ric, Georges
• Primary Examiner(s): Dickson, Paul N
• Assistant Examiner(s): BECK, KAREN JANE AMORES
• Application Number:
  US12/355,404
• Publication Number:
  US 20090198390A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,306 Days
• Field of Search: 701/2, 701/3, 701/4, 701/5, 701/6, 701/7, 701/8, 701/9, 701/10, 701/11, 701/12, 701/13, 701/14, 701/15, 701/16, 701/17, 701/18, 709/217, 709/206, 709/223, 726/4, 726/5, 726/11
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user

Abstract

A method executes at least one instruction in an on-board maintenance device from a remote system connected to the maintenance device via a communication network. The method includes receiving at least one datum representative of at least one command having a correspondence with the at least one instruction. The method also includes filtering the at least one received datum. In response to the filtering, if the at least one received datum represents a valid command, the method includes converting the at least one received datum to identify the at least one instruction.

Claims

1. A method for executing at least one instruction having at least one parameter in an on-board maintenance device from a remote system connected to the maintenance device via a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving at least one datum representative of at least one command having a correspondence with the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one instruction;

filtering the at least one received datum to exclude commands including characters that can be used to construct executable code; and

in response to the filtering, if the at least one received datum represents a valid command, converting the at least one received datum to identify the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one instruction based on stored correspondence information that maps the at least one datum to the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one instruction.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

verifying a signature of the at least one received datum.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

storing in memory the correspondence information that maps the at least one datum to the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one instruction.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the filtering includes an iterative filtering based on at least two distinct criteria.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein at least one of the at least two criteria is associated with a protocol for transmission of the at least one datum.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein at least one of the at least two criteria is related to the encoding of the at least one datum representative of the at least one command.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting at least one information item related to execution of the at least one instruction.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

signing the at least one information item.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one datum includes only ASCII characters having values from 032 to 090.

10. An on-board maintenance device comprising:

a communication module that receives, from a remote system connected via a communication network, at least one datum representative of at least one command having a correspondence with at least one executable instruction and at least one parameter of the at least one executable instruction;

a filtering module that filters the at least one received datum to exclude commands including characters that can be used to construct executable code; and

a conversion module that converts the at least one received datum to identify the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one executable instruction based on stored correspondence information that maps the at least one datum to the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one instruction, if the at least one received datum represents a valid command as determined by the filtering module.

11. The device according to claim 10, further comprising:

a verifying module that verifies a signature of the at least one received datum.

12. The device according to claim 10, further comprising:

a memory that stores the correspondence information that maps the at least one datum to the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one instruction.

13. The device according to claim 10, wherein the filtering module is configured to perform an iterative filtering based on at least two distinct criteria.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein at least one of the at least two criteria is associated with a protocol for transmission of the at least one datum.

15. The device according to claim 13, wherein at least one of the at least two criteria is related to the encoding of the at least one datum representative of the at least one command.

16. The device according to claim 10, wherein the communication module is further configured to transmit at least one information item related to execution of the at least one instruction.

17. The device according to claim 16, further comprising:

a signing module that signs the at least one information item.

18. The device according to claim 10, wherein the at least one datum includes only ASCII characters having values from 032 to 090.

19. An aircraft comprising:

an on-board maintenance device including

a communication module that receives, from a remote system connected via a communication network, at least one datum representative of at least one command having a correspondence with at least one instruction and at least one parameter of the at least one executable instruction,

a filtering module that filters the at least one received datum to exclude commands including characters that can be used to construct executable code, and

a conversion module that converts the at least one received datum to identify the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one executable instruction based on stored correspondence information that maps the at least one datum to the at least one instruction and the at least one parameter of the at least one instruction, if the at least one received datum represents a valid command as determined by the filtering module.