Transaction and payment system security remote authentication/validation of transactions from a transaction provider

• US 7,693,797 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2004
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Ekberg, Jan-Erik
• Primary Examiner(s): Hewitt, II, Calvin L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nigh, James D
• Application Number:
  US10/871,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20050283444A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,115 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705 64- 65, 705/67, 705 75- 79
• US Class Current: 705/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/045 using payment protocols involving tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/38215 Use of certificates or encrypted proofs of transaction rights
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3823 combining multiple encryption tools for a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0886 the card reader being portable for interacting with a POS or ECR in realizing a payment transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3242 involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC

Abstract

A mobile terminal is equipped for SMS payment and service authentication with a remote transaction provider. The remote provider uses common secrets & a seed in a keyed Hash Machine Address Code (HMAC) executing a Message Digest Algorithm to generate a list of authentication token (username-password) for the purchase of services an/or goods. The common secrets and seed are shared with local redemption devices which also generate the list of authentication token. A subscriber conducts payment with the remote transaction provider and receives an authentication token corresponding to the purchased service. The subscriber provides the authentication token to the redemption device which compares the authentication token with sets of valid authentication tokens generated by the redemption terminal. If the comparison indicates a match, the redemption device provides the service to the subscriber.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating in a remote server and in an at least one local server a list of valid authentication tokens based on secret keys shared between the remote server and the at least one local server and a seed with an authentication algorithm;

requesting, by a mobile terminal, a transaction token from the remote server;

selecting, by the remote server, an authentication token from the list of valid authentication tokens in the remote server;

purchasing, by the mobile terminal, the selected authentication token;

transmitting the purchased authentication token to the mobile terminal;

receiving, by the at least one local server, the purchased authentication token;

comparing by the at least one local server the purchased authentication token to the list of valid authentication tokens in the at least one local server;

authenticating the purchased token by determining, by the local server, that the purchased token matches an authentication token in the list of valid authentication tokens in the at least one local server; and

based on the determination that the received token is valid, accepting, by the at least one local server, the purchased token.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of valid authentication tokens are periodically updated.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the list of valid tokens are periodically updated by changing at least the seed specify a date and time period for the authentication algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising;

installing a communication connection between the remote and the at least one local servers which is non-continuous in operation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the non-continuous communication connection is used for transferring from the remote server one or more seed updates to the at least one local servers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting, by the local server, mobile user identification information from the mobile terminal in exchange of providing the services and/or good to the mobile terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-continuous communication connection is used for transferring from the at least one local servers to the remote server information relating to authentication token usage.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the authentication token usage includes at least one of a mobile terminal identification information and mobile terminal user identification information.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the non-continuous communication connection is secure.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing the authentication token into an electronic ticket.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating the authentication token using RFID.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

generating the list of authentication tokens by recursively applying a keyed HMAC function to the common keys and seed.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the authentication tokens via the seed to be time based.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the common secret keys and seed in the remote server and the local server.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using SMS messaging in submitting the request to the remote server.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using short range communication to transfer the authentication token to the local server.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

limiting validity of the authentication token to a time period.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tying an accepted authentication token to a MAC hardware address of a requester.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

dividing the time period into several sub-timing periods.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

assigning separate authentication tokens to each sub-timing period.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

calculating the separate authentication token for sub-timing periods based on the order number or the time-period of the sub-timing period.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of valid authentication tokens includes tokens for a current sub-timing period and tokens for a sub-timing period before and a sub-timing period after the current time period to ensure the correct validity period for the token/ticket.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the seed is assigned a date (d) in the future.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the seed is further assigned a time period (p).

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the tokens are given out by the remote server in random order for single use.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the token contains two-4-character hex strings, one as a username and one as a password.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the local server compares a token to all possible tokens in time period (1) defined by a date (d);

a period (p) and (r) a factor providing authentication periods overlap compensating for an assumed synchronization mismatch between the local server and the remote server clocks.

28. A system, comprising:

a remote server comprising;

a processor; and

a memory comprised of computer readable instructions, when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the steps of;

generating in the remote server a list of valid authentication tokens based on secret keys and a seed with an authentication algorithm; and

transmitting a purchased authentication token to a mobile terminal;

at least one local server comprising;

a processor; and

a memory comprised of computer readable instructions, when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the steps of;

generating in the at least one local server a list of valid authentication tokens based on said secret keys shared between the remote server and the at least one local server and said seed with said authentication algorithm;

receiving , by the at least one local server, the purchased authentication token;

comparing by the at least one local server the purchased authentication token to the list of valid authentication tokens in the at least one local server;

authenticating the purchased token by determining, by the local server, that the purchased token matches an authentication token in the list of valid authentication tokens in the at least one local server; and

based on the determination that the received token is valid, accepting, by the at least one local server, the purchased token;

the mobile terminal comprising;

a processor; and

a memory comprised of computer readable instructions, when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the steps of;

requesting, by the mobile terminal, a transaction token from the remote server; and

purchasing, by the mobile terminal, the selected authentication token.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the list of valid authentication tokens are periodically updated.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the list of valid tokens are periodically updated by changing at least the seed specifying a future date for the authentication algorithm.

31. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

installing means for installing a communication connection between the remote and the at least one local servers which is non-continuous in operation.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the non-continuous communication connection is used for transferring from the remote server one or more seed updates to the at least one local servers.

33. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

said at least one local server configured to request mobile user identification information from the mobile terminal in exchange of providing the services and/or the goods to the mobile terminal.

34. The system of claim 28, wherein the non-continuous communication connection is used for transferring from the at least one local servers to the remote server information relating to authentication token usage.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the authentication token usage includes at least one of a mobile terminal identification information and mobile terminal user identification information.

36. The system of claim 31, wherein the non-continuous communication connection is secure.

37. The system of claim 28, wherein the authentication token is installed in a ticket.

38. The system of claim 28, wherein the generating means generates the list of authentication tokens by recursively applying a keyed HMAC function to the common keys and seed.

39. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

modifying means modifying the authentication token via the seed to be time based.

40. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

updating means updating the common secret keys and seed in the remote server and the local server.

41. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

terminal means enabled for submitting the SMS request to the remote server.

42. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

terminal means enabled for short range communication to transfer the authentication token to the local server.

43. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

limiting means limiting validity of the authentication token to a time period.

44. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

tying means tying an accepted authentication token to a MAC hardware address of a requester.

45. The system of claim 43, further comprising:

dividing means dividing the time period into several sub-timing periods.

46. The system of claim 45, further comprising:

assigning means assigning separate authentication tokens to each sub-timing period.

47. The system of claim 45, further comprising:

calculating means calculating the separate authentication token for sub-timing periods based on the order number or the time-period of the sub-timing period.

48. The system of claim 28, wherein the list of valid authentication tokens includes tokens for a current sub-timing period and tokens for a sub-timing period before and a sub-timing period after the current time period to ensure the correct validity period for the token/ticket.

49. The system of claim 28, wherein the seed is assigned a date (d) in the future.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the seed is further assigned a time period (p).

51. The system of claim 29, wherein the tokens are given out by the remote server in random order for single use.

52. The system of claim 28, wherein the token contains two-4-character hex strings, one as a username an one as a password.

53. The system of claim 28, wherein the local server compares a token to all possible tokens in time period (1) defined by a date (d);

a period (p) and (r) a factor providing authentication period over lap compensating for an assumed synchronization mismatch between the local server and the remote server clocks.