Secure OTP using external memory

• US 8,612,774 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2005
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics Limited (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics Limited (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Dellow, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Salehi, Helai
• Application Number:
  US11/236,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20060092049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,003 Days
• Field of Search: 726/26, 713/153, 713/193, 380/258, 380/264, 370/536, 455/158
• US Class Current: 713/193
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/79 in semiconductor storage media, e.g. directly-addressable memories
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/22 Safety or protection circuits preventing unauthorised or accidental access to memory cells

Abstract

A set-top-box has on-chip OTP memory emulated using an external flash memory and a series of on-chip fuses. The external memory is comprised of one or more regions, each having its own unique region identification. Each on-chip fuse corresponds to one of the memory regions and comprises a component which can be caused to change to a particular (blown) state irreversibly. When data first needs to be written to a region of the external memory, the identification of that region is appended to the data itself together with a parity field and a validity field. The resultant data packet is then encrypted by a cryptographic circuit using a secret key unique to the set-top-box and the encrypted data packet is written to the specified region of the external memory. Then, the on-chip fuse corresponding to the region that has been written to is irreversibly blown, effectively locking that region.

Claims

1. A semiconductor integrated circuit for restricting data access to and from an external memory that includes one or more regions and stores data in an encrypted form, the circuit comprising:

a first cryptographic circuit for encrypting data transmitted from the circuit to the external memory and for decrypting data transmitted from the external memory to the circuit, the encrypting and decrypting being performed using a secret encryption or decryption key; and

one or more fuses, each fuse corresponding to one of the regions of the external memory, and which are initially in a first state and which may be irreversibly changed to a second state;

in which the circuit is arranged to cause a change in state of a selected fuse from the first state to the second state, the selected fuse corresponding to a region of the external memory to which data has been written and in which the circuit is further arranged to block data writes to the external memory if data is being written to a region for which the corresponding fuse is in the second state.

2. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 further arranged to block data reads from the external memory if data is being read from a region for which the corresponding fuse is in the first state.

3. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the first cryptographic circuit is arranged to perform a check of the state of one or more of the fuses.

4. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the first cryptographic circuit is arranged to cause the change in state of the selected fuse.

5. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1, further comprising a controller arranged to cause the change in state of the selected fuse.

6. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the encryption or decryption key used to encrypt or decrypt data is unique to the circuit.

7. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1, further comprising a second cryptographic circuit arranged to encrypt a fixed value using a second key, and further arranged to transmit the encrypted value to the first cryptographic circuit where the first cryptographic circuit uses the encrypted value as a key for encrypting or decrypting data.

8. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the regions of the external memory are not all the same size.

9. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the external memory is a non-volatile flash memory.

10. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the data is comprised in data packets.

11. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the external memory is arranged to store encryption and decryption keys for one or more cryptographic systems.

12. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which data read operations are managed by a hardware state machine.

13. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which data retrieved from the external memory is transmitted to one or more secure cryptographic devices after the data is decrypted.

14. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 in which the circuit is a monolithic device.

15. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein the one or more fuses comprise a plurality of fuses each corresponding to one of a plurality of regions of the external memory.

16. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 8 in which no two regions of the external memory are the same size.

17. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 10 in which each data packet comprises an identification of the region to which the data packet is to be written to.

18. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 10 in which each data packet comprises a parity field.

19. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 10 in which each data packet comprises a validity field.

20. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 17 in which the circuit is further arranged to perform a region identification check by comparing the region identification comprised in a data packet retrieved from the external memory with an identification of the region from which the data packet was retrieved.

21. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 18 in which the circuit is further arranged to perform a parity check of data comprised in a data packet retrieved from the external memory using the parity field.

22. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 19 in which the validity field is at least 32 bits in size.

23. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 19 in which the circuit is arranged to perform a validity check of data comprised in a data packet retrieved from the external memory using the validity field.

24. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 20 in which the circuit is arranged to perform a system reset if the region identification check fails.

25. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 21 in which the circuit is arranged to perform a system reset if the parity check fails.

26. The semiconductor integrated circuit of claim 23 in which the circuit is arranged to perform a system reset if the validity check fails.

27. A set-top-box, comprising:

an external memory that includes one or more regions and stores data in an encrypted form; and

a semiconductor integrated circuit for restricting data access to and from the external memory, the circuit including;

a first cryptographic circuit for encrypting data transmitted from the circuit to the external memory and for decrypting data transmitted from the external memory to the circuit, the encrypting and decrypting being performed using a secret encryption or decryption key; and

one or more fuses, each fuse corresponding to one of the regions of the external memory, and which are initially in a first state and which may be irreversibly changed to a second state;

in which the circuit is arranged to cause a change in state of a selected fuse from the first state to the second state, the selected fuse corresponding to a region of the external memory to which data has been written and in which the circuit is further arranged to block data writes to the external memory if data is being written to a region for which the corresponding fuse is in the second state.

28. The set-top-box of claim 27 in which the first cryptographic circuit is arranged to perform a check of the state of one or more of the fuses.

29. The set-top-box of claim 27 in which the first cryptographic circuit is arranged to cause the change in state of the selected fuse.

30. The set-top-box of claim 27, further comprising a controller arranged to cause the change in state of the selected fuse.

31. The set-top-box of claim 27 wherein the one or more fuses comprise a plurality of fuses each corresponding to one of a plurality of regions of the external memory.

32. A method for restricting data access to and from an external memory which comprise one or more regions and which stores data in an encrypted form, the method comprising the steps of:

encrypting a data packet using a unique key;

selecting a first region of the external memory to which the encrypted data packet is to be written;

determining whether the selected first region has already been written to by determining a state of a fuse corresponding to the selected first region;

writing the encrypted data packet to the selected first region if the fuse corresponding to the selected region is in a first state indicating that the selected first region has not already been written to;

irreversibly changing the state of the fuse corresponding to the selected first region from the first state to a second state when the encrypted data packet has been written to the selected first region; and

blocking the writing of the encrypted data packet if the fuse corresponding to the selected first region is in the second state indicating that the selected first region has already been written to.

33. The method of claim 32 comprising the further step of forming a data packet comprising an identification of the region to which the data packet is to be written to.

34. The method of claim 32 comprising the further step of forming a data packet comprising a parity field.

35. The method of claim 32 further comprising the step of forming a data packet comprising a validity field.

36. The method of claim 32 comprising the further steps of:

selecting a second region of the external memory from which a data packet is to be read;

determining whether the selected second region has been written to by determining a state of a fuse corresponding to the selected second region;

blocking the data read if the fuse corresponding to the selected second region is in the first state indicating that the selected second region has not been written to; and

retrieving and decrypting the data packet from the selected second region if the fuse corresponding to the selected second region is in the second state indicating that the selected second region has been written to.

38. The method of claim 36 comprising the further step of performing a region identification check by comparing a region identification comprised in a data packet retrieved from the external memory with an identification of the region from which the data packet was retrieved.

39. The method of claim 36 comprising the further step of performing a parity check of data comprised in a data packet retrieved from the external memory using a parity field.

40. The method of claim 36 comprising the further step of performing a validity check of data comprised in a data packet retrieved from the external memory using a validity field.

41. The method of claim 38 comprising the further step of performing a system reset if the region identification check fails.

42. The method of claim 39 comprising the further step of performing a system reset if the parity check fails.

43. The method of claim 40 comprising the further step of performing a system reset if the validity check fails.

37. The method of 32 wherein the steps are performed under the control of an integrated circuit comprising the fuse corresponding to the selected first region.

44. A semiconductor integrated circuit for restricting data access to and from an external memory that includes one or more regions, the circuit comprising:

one or more fuses, each fuse corresponding to a respective one of the regions of the external memory, and which are initially in a first state and which may be irreversibly changed to a second state; and

means for blocking writing to the one of the one or more regions in response to determining that the fuse corresponding to the one of the one or more regions is in the second state.

45. The integrated circuit of claim 44, further comprising means for decrypting data read from the external memory.

46. The integrated circuit of claim 44, further comprising means for blocking reading of one of the one or more regions in response to determining that the fuse corresponding to the one of the one or more regions is in the first state.

47. The integrated circuit of claim 44 wherein the one or more fuses comprises a plurality of fuses.

48. The integrated circuit of claim 45 wherein the data is read from a selected one of the one or more regions and the means for encrypting data includes means for checking the state of the fuse corresponding to the selected region and blocking the decrypting of the data if the fuse corresponding to the selected region is in the first state.