Universal serial bus selective encryption

• US 8,984,580 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Bunger, Nils, Orady, Aly E., Debski, Matthew B., Garg, Pankaj, Kilani, Dali, Khubchandani, Teju, Choudhury, Himadri
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, CHAU D
• Application Number:
  US12/221,403
• Publication Number:
  US 20090094672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,419 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/2, 726/4
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method to interact with a remote USB device is disclosed. An identifying message is received from a remote client associated with the remote USB device. The remote USB device is identified based at least in part on the identifying message from the remote client. A security policy is determined for the remote USB device. A policy message is transmitted to the remote client for selectively implementing the security policy of the remote USB device. A method to interact with a local USB device is disclosed. An identifying message is determined by performing a host controller service for the local USB device. The identifying message is transmitted to a server. A policy message is received from the server for selectively implementing a security policy on the local USB device. The security policy is regarded and configuring the host controller service.

Claims

1. A server configured to interact with a remote USB device comprising:

an interface to receive an identifying message from a remote client associated with the remote USB device to a security policy engine, wherein the identifying message includes a USB transfer descriptor associated with the remote USB device;

the security policy engine, configured to;

identify the remote USB device based at least in part on the USB transfer descriptor provided in the received identifying message; and

determine a security policy for the remote USB device based at least in part on the identity of the remote USB device; and

the interface, further configured to transmit a policy message comprising the determined security policy from the security policy engine to the remote client,

wherein USB data traffic between the remote client and the server is selectively encrypted by the remote client based at least in part on the security policy,

wherein the server transmits an instruction comprising a set of parameters which includes at least one of a width of a data bus, an analog or digital overcurrent detection, and a device-specific hardware configuration, to a host controller of the remote client for initializing the host controller before the remote USB device is detected, and

wherein the security policy engine is a hardware processor.

2. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy is refined on a transaction by transaction basis.

3. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy includes a policy to determine which messages to encrypt.

4. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy includes a policy to determine which unencrypted messages to reject.

5. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy includes an encryption scheme.

6. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy includes a public key encryption scheme.

7. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy includes a symmetric key encryption scheme.

8. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the policy message selectively implements the security policy for a remote USB device with a specified transfer descriptor index.

9. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the interface is further configured to selectively not implement the security policy on the remote USB device.

10. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a USB configuration of the remote USB device.

11. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the remote USB device includes a keyboard.

12. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the remote USB device includes a keyboard and wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a keyboard configuration for predetermination of extracted information of a keyboard transfer descriptor.

13. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the remote USB device includes a mass storage device.

14. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the remote USB device includes a mass storage device, and wherein the security policy is selectively implemented for a subset of files on the mass storage device.

15. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the remote USB device includes a mass storage device, and wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a subset of directories on the mass storage device.

16. A server as recited in claim 1, wherein the remote USB device includes a mass storage device, and wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a subset of operations on the mass storage device.

17. The server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy engine selects the security policy from at least two security policies based on a type of the USB transfer descriptor.

18. The server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy engine further identifies a state of the remote USB device based on the received identifying message and wherein the security policy engine selects the security policy from at least two security policies further based on the identified state of the remote USB device.

19. The server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy identifies type of access to encrypt for the same remote USB device such that a first transaction between the remote server and the remote client, which is a first type of access, is encrypted and a second transaction between the same remote server and the same remote client, which is a second type of access different from the first type of access, is not encrypted.

20. The server as recited in claim 1, wherein prior to the host controller detecting the remote USB device, the server transmits a series of instructions to the host controller for initializing a USB bus to which the remote USB device can be connected.

21. The server as recited in claim 1, wherein the security policy comprises identifying memory space access to which is to be encrypted and a particular type of USB transfer to be encrypted.

22. A client configured to interact with a local USB device comprising:

a host controller, coupled to the local USB device, configured to be initialized upon receiving an instruction comprising a set of parameters which includes at least one of a width of a data bus, an analog or digital overcurrent detection, and a device-specific hardware configuration from a server before the local USB device is detected;

a security policy engine, coupled to the host controller;

an interface, configured to;

send an identifying message to the server, the identifying message includes a USB transfer descriptor associated with the local USB device; and

receive a policy message comprising a security policy from the server, the security policy being determined by the server based on the USB transfer descriptor;

wherein the security policy engine is configured to;

regard the policy message and configure the host controller; and

selectively encrypt USB data traffic between the remote client and the server based at least in part on the security policy.

23. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the host controller includes a memory protected by the security policy.

24. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the host controller includes a memory protected by the security policy based on the memory address.

25. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy is refined on a transaction by transaction basis.

26. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy includes a policy to determine which messages to encrypt.

27. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy includes a policy to determine which unencrypted messages to reject.

28. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy includes an encryption scheme.

29. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy includes a public key encryption scheme.

30. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy includes a symmetric key encryption scheme.

31. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the policy message selectively implements the security policy for the local USB device with a specified transfer descriptor index.

32. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a USB configuration of the local USB device.

33. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the local USB device includes a keyboard.

34. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the local USB device includes a keyboard and wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a keyboard configuration for predetermination of extracted information of a keyboard transfer descriptor.

35. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the local USB device includes a mass storage device.

36. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the local USB device includes a mass storage device, and wherein the security policy is selectively implemented for a subset of files on the mass storage device.

37. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the local USB device includes a mass storage device, and wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a subset of directories on the mass storage device.

38. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the local USB device includes a mass storage device, and wherein the security policy is selectively not implemented for a subset of operations on the mass storage device.

39. A client as recited in claim 22, wherein the security policy engine configures the host controller to interact with the local USB device if and only if the local USB device regards the security policy and otherwise reject interaction.

40. A method to interact with a remote USB device comprising:

receiving an identifying message from a remote client associated with the remote USB device, wherein the identifying message includes a USB transfer descriptor associated with the remote USB device;

identifying the remote USB device based at least in part on the USB transfer descriptor provided in the received identifying message;

determining a security policy for the remote USB device based at least in part on the identity of the remote USB device; and

transmitting a policy message comprising the determined security policy to the remote client

wherein USB data traffic between the remote client and a server is selectively encrypted by the remote client based at least in part on the security policy, and

wherein the server transmits an instruction comprising a set of parameters which includes at least one of a width of a data bus, an analog or digital overcurrent detection, and a device-specific hardware configuration, to a host controller of the remote client for initializing the host controller before the remote USB device is detected.

41. A method to interact with a local USB device comprising:

initializing a host controller upon receiving an instruction comprising a set of parameters which includes at least one of a width of a data bus, an analog or digital overcurrent detection, and a device-specific hardware configuration, from a server before the local USB device is detected;

determining an identifying message by performing a host controller service for the local USB device, wherein the identifying message includes a USB transfer descriptor associated with the local USB device;

transmitting the identifying message to a server;

receiving a policy message comprising a security policy from the server, the security policy being determined by the server based on the USB transfer descriptor; and

configuring the host controller service; and

selectively encrypting USB data traffic to and from the server based at least in part on the security policy.

42. A server configured to interact with a remote USB device comprising:

an interface to receive an identifying message from a remote client associated with the remote USB device to a security policy engine, wherein the identifying message includes a USB transfer descriptor associated with the remote USB device;

the security policy engine, configured to;

identify the remote USB device based at least in part on the USB transfer descriptor provided in the received identifying message; and

determine a security policy for the remote USB device based at least in part on the identity of the remote USB device; and

the interface, further configured to transmit a policy message comprising the determined security policy from the security policy engine to the remote client, wherein the remote client is configured to;

implement the received security policy on the remote USB device; and

selectively encrypt USB data traffic from the remote client to the server based at least in part on the security policy,

wherein the security policy engine determines the security policy from among at least two security policies,

wherein the at least two security policies comprise a plurality of stored registers comprising;

a first register to flag whether a particular isochronous USB transfer is to be encrypted;

a second register to flag whether a particular interrupt USB transfer is to be encrypted;

a third register to flag whether a particular bulk or Asynchronous Transfer List is to be encrypted; and

a fourth register to select when access of registers and memory space of the remote client is to be encrypted, and

wherein the security policy further comprises type of access to be protected, and

wherein the security policy engine is a hardware processor.