Method for exchanging strong encryption keys between devices using alternate input methods in wireless personal area networks (WPAN)
First Claim
1. A method for secure communication comprising:
- setting at least two devices that want to communicate with one another in key exchange mode, wherein the at least two devices are to communicate over an in-bound transmission channel, wherein the at least two devices negotiate with one another to determine which of the at least two devices will generate an encryption key by determining which of the at least two devices comprises more processing power, wherein device A comprises the negotiated device based on having more processing power than device B;
enabling device A togenerate the encryption key using audible background noise as a random seed; and
transmit the encryption key to device B using audio tones via an out-of-band audio transmission channel;
determining whether the encryption key has been successfully validated; and
if the encryption key has been successfully validated, enabling the at least two devices to automatically accept communications between them over the inbound transmission channel.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for exchanging strong encryption keys between devices using alternate input methods. At least two devices that want to communicate with one another are set in key exchange mode. The at least two devices are to communicate with one another using a short range radio or personal area network. The at least two devices negotiate with one another to determine which of the at least two devices will generate an encryption key, wherein device A represents the negotiated device and device B represents the non-negotiated device. Device A generates the encryption key and transmits the encryption key to device B using an out-of band transmission channel. The out-of-band transmission channel may be transmitting the encryption key via audio tones. A validation process determines whether the transmission of the encryption key via the out-of-band transmission channel was successful. If the encryption key has been successfully validated, the at least two devices are enabled to automatically accept communications between them over the short range radio or personal area network.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for secure communication comprising:
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setting at least two devices that want to communicate with one another in key exchange mode, wherein the at least two devices are to communicate over an in-bound transmission channel, wherein the at least two devices negotiate with one another to determine which of the at least two devices will generate an encryption key by determining which of the at least two devices comprises more processing power, wherein device A comprises the negotiated device based on having more processing power than device B; enabling device A to generate the encryption key using audible background noise as a random seed; and transmit the encryption key to device B using audio tones via an out-of-band audio transmission channel; determining whether the encryption key has been successfully validated; and if the encryption key has been successfully validated, enabling the at least two devices to automatically accept communications between them over the inbound transmission channel. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An article comprising:
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a non-transitory storage medium having a plurality of machine accessible instructions, wherein when the machine accessible instructions are executed by a processor, the machine accessible instructions provide for; setting at least two devices that want to communicate with one another in key exchange mode, wherein the at least two devices are to communicate using a short-range radio or personal area network, wherein the at least two devices negotiate with one another to determine which of the at least two devices will generate an encryption key by determining which of the at least two devices first offers to generate the encryption key, wherein device A comprises the negotiated device based on first offering to generate the encryption key and device B comprises the non-negotiated device; enabling device A to generate the encryption key using audible background noise as a random seed; and transmit the encryption key to device B using audio tones via an out-of-band audio transmission channel;
determining whether the encryption key has been successfully validated; and
if the encryption key has been successfully validated, enabling the at least two devices to automatically accept communications between them over the short range radio network or the personal area network. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system for secure communications comprising:
at least two devices capable of communicating with one another via a local, short-range, or personal area network, wherein the at least two devices to negotiate as to which device will generate an encryption key, wherein the negotiated device (i) to generate the encryption key using audible background noise as a random seed and (ii) to transmit the encryption key to the non-negotiated device using audio tones via an out-of band audio transmission channel, the non-negotiated device to transmit random data to the negotiated device using the encryption key and the negotiated device to transmit return data back to the non-negotiated device to determine whether the encryption key is valid, wherein the return data transmitted by the negotiated device comprises the random data received from the non-negotiated device and a time stamp encrypted using the encryption key. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. One or more non-transitory machine readable media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon, which in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to:
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communicate, in a key exchange mode, with another computing device via an in-bound transmission channel; negotiate with the another computing device to determine which device will generate an encryption key based on a determination of which of the devices comprises the more processing power; generate the encryption key using audible background noise as a random seed in response to the determination that the computing device comprises more processing power; transmit the encryption key to the another computing device as audio tones via an out-of-band audio transmission channel; determine whether the encryption key has been successfully validated; and enable the computing device to automatically accept communications from the another computing device over the in-bound transmission channel in response to the determination that the encryption key has been successfully validated. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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Specification