Secure mobile wireless device

• US 20060053426A1
• Filed: 05/28/2003
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbian Limited (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Dive-Reclus, Corinne, May, Dennis, Harris, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 7,882,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2113 Multi-level security, e.g. mandatory access control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2115 Third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices

Abstract

A secure mobile wireless device in which executable code to be installed on the device is assigned a set of capabilities which define the protected resource(s) on the device which it can access. Hence, the present invention takes the idea of capabilities (known in the context of defining the capabilities or access privileges of different users in a multi-user system) and applies it to defining the capabilities or access privileges of different native executable code for secure, single-user mobile wireless devices.

Claims

1. A secure mobile wireless device for a single user in which native executable code is written to include a set of capabilities which define the protected resource(s) on the device which it can access, such that a native process running on the device and providing the protected resource(s) will only grant access to the native executable code if doing so is permitted by the capabilities included within the native executable code, as determined during run time, by that particular native process.

2. The device of claim 1 in which a capability grants access to a specific API (or range of APIs), file or other operating system protected resource(s).

3. The device of claim 1 in which, prior to install time, the executable code already contains the capabilities it has been granted

4. The device of claim 1 in which the executable code is permanently stored in a location in memory of the device which is only accessible to a trusted computing base to preserve the integrity of the capabilities assigned to the executable code.

5. The device of claim 4 in which a loader refuses to load executables not permanently stored in a location in memory of the device which is only accessible to the trusted computing base, to preserve the integrity of the system.

6. The device of claim 1 in which there are system capabilities which are mandatory and control access to the operating system kernel, file system and system data.

7. The device of claim 1 in which for any client-server communication within the device, a device kernel will pass the capabilities to the native process.

8. The device of claim 1 in which, for a library to be loaded in an executable, a loader verifies that this library is assigned a superset of the capabilities granted to the requesting executable.

9. The device of claim 1 in which a capability is selected from a list of capabilities which comprise root capabilities, system capabilities and user-exposed capabilities.

10. The device of claim 9 in which the user-exposed capabilities allow the following functions:

(a) Can spend subscribers money by using the phone network

(b) Can read users private information

(c) Can modify users private information

(d) Can send information to a local network without spending subscribers money.

(e) Can know the device location.

11. The device of claim 1 in which the native process can be a kernel or a user side server.

12. A software application adapted to run on a secure mobile wireless device in which the application is assigned some capabilities which define the protected resource(s) on the device which it can access, such that a native process running on the device and providing the protected resource(s) will only grant access to the application if doing so is permitted by the capabilities included within the application code, as determined during run time, by that particular native process.

13. An operating system adapted to run on a secure mobile wireless device in which the operating system requires native executable code requiring access to sensitive resources to be assigned some capabilities which define the protected resource(s) which it can access, such that a native process running on the device and providing the protected resource(s) will only grant access to the native executable code if doing so is permitted by the capabilities included within the native executable code, as determined during run time, by that particular native process.