Multiple-stage system and method for processing encoded messages

• US 8,194,857 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2002
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Little, Herbert A., Brown, Michael S., Brown, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Popham, Jeffrey D
• Application Number:
  US10/493,507
• Publication Number:
  US 20050009502A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,512 Days
• Field of Search: 380/270
• US Class Current: 380/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0442 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

System and methods for processing encoded messages at a message receiver are described. Encoded message processing is performed in multiple stages. In a first stage, a new received message is at least partially decoded by performing any decoding operations that require no user input and a resulting context object is stored in memory, before a user is notified that the new message has been received. When the user accesses the new message, any further required decoding operations are performed on the stored context object in a second stage of processing. The message can subsequently be displayed or otherwise processed relatively quickly, without repeating the first stage decoding operations. Decoding operations may include signature verification, decryption, other types of decoding, or some combination thereof.

Claims

1. A method for processing encoded messages at a wireless mobile communication device, comprising the steps of:

receiving at the wireless mobile communication device an encoded message, wherein a plurality of decoding operations are to be performed upon the encoded message before the decoded message is used within the wireless mobile communication device;

performing by the wireless mobile communication device a first decoding operation upon the encoded message so as to generate a partially decoded message, wherein the first decoding operation performs at least one of the decoding operations which are to be performed upon the encoded message;

storing the partially decoded message to a memory of the wireless mobile communication device;

producing an indication of receipt of the message after completion of the first decoding operation and after the partially decoded message is stored to the memory;

receiving a request to access the received message;

retrieving the partially decoded message from the memory in response to receiving the request to access the received message; and

performing by the wireless mobile communication device a second decoding operation upon the partially decoded message after receiving the request to access the received message so as to generate a decoded message for use within the wireless mobile communication device;

wherein the message is encoded by being signed and then encrypted, wherein the first decoding operation performed before receiving the request to access the received message comprises decoding operations associated with transmission encoding, retrieval of at least one decryption key, and partial decryption of the message using the retrieved decryption key, wherein the partial decryption of the message does not involve decrypting a signature of the message; and

wherein the second decoding operation comprises decryption of the partially decoded message using the retrieved decryption key and signature verification upon the decrypted message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a user has provided the request to access the received message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message is an encrypted message comprising encrypted content and an encrypted session key.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of decoding operations that are to be performed upon the encoded message comprises decrypting the encrypted session key and decrypting the message'"'"'s encrypted content using the decrypted session key.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoded message was encrypted using a secure e-mail encryption standard.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoded message was encrypted using Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) techniques.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoded message was encrypted using Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) techniques.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the encoded message was encrypted using OpenPGP techniques.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message comprises encrypted content and an encrypted session key, and wherein the plurality of decoding operations that are to be performed upon the encoded message comprises decrypting the encrypted session key and decrypting the message'"'"'s encrypted content using the decrypted session key.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising decrypting an encrypted session key and decrypting the partially decoded message using the decrypted session key.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein Base-64 encoding was performed to generate the encoded message.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein ASN.1 encoding was performed to generate the encoded message.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

indicating that the encoded message has been received at the wireless mobile communication device.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

indicating that the encoded message has been received at the wireless mobile communication device after performing the first decoding operation.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first decoding operation comprises decoding operations that can be performed without requiring action from a user, and wherein the first decoding operation is performed before the user is notified of receipt of the message.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the encoded message is capable of being partially decoded; and

performing the first decoding operation so as to generate the partially decoded message if the encoded message is capable of being partially decoded.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving at the wireless mobile communication device a second encoded message;

determining whether the second encoded message is capable of being partially decoded; and

storing the second encoded message to the memory without performing a first decoding operation upon the second encoded message if the second encoded message is not capable of being partially decoded.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether a third received encoded message is capable of being partially decoded;

storing the third encoded message to the memory without performing a first decoding operation that would generate a partially decoded message version of the third encoded message if the third received encoded message is not capable of being partially decoded; and

indicating that the third encoded message has been received at the wireless mobile communication device.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein time delay associated with providing the received message to the user in response to the request to access is reduced due to the performing of the first decoding operation prior to storing the partially decoded message to the memory.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first decoding operation is performed in the background before a user is informed that the message has been received.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory is volatile and non-persistent memory.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory is random access memory (RAM).

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the partially decoded message is stored to the memory as a context object in the memory.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the context object is retrieved from the memory so that the context object may be further decoded so as to generate a decoded context object.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the decoded context object is displayed to a user of the wireless mobile communication device.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the context object is stored in the memory for a preselected time.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the preselected time is selected by a user of the wireless mobile communication device.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the preselected time is based upon a sender of the encoded message.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the preselected time is based upon a preselected level of security.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the first decoding operation is repeated for the partially decoded message after the message is retrieved from the memory.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether an encoded message has been partially decoded; and

performing the second decoding operation upon the partially decoded message where the encoded message has been partially decoded.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message comprises message information that was encoded, and wherein a plurality of decoding operations are to be performed upon the encoded message before the message information is used within the wireless mobile communication device.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the message information comprises a message body.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the message information comprises a message attachment.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message includes a header portion, an encoded body portion, at least one encrypted session key, and a digital signature.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message is received by the wireless mobile communication device through a wireless infrastructure and a wireless network.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein a message server transmits the encoded message through the wireless infrastructure and the wireless network to the wireless mobile communication device.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the message server receives the encoded message from a message sender.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the wireless mobile communication device requests in a pull message access scheme that stored messages be forwarded by the message server to the wireless mobile communication device.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the message server routes the encoded message to the wireless mobile communication device when the encoded message is received at the message server, and wherein the encoded message is addressed by the message sender using a specific e-mail address associated with the wireless mobile communication device.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein the message server redirects the encoded message to the wireless mobile communication device.

42. The method of claim 38, wherein the message server comprises means for redirecting the encoded message to the wireless mobile communication device.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein, before the encoded message is redirected to the wireless mobile communication device, a redirection program re-envelopes the encoded message so as to maintain addressing information of the encoded message.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the redirection program re-envelopes the encoded message so as to allow a reply message generated by the wireless mobile communication device to reach the message sender.

45. The method of claim 1, wherein certificate information of a user of the wireless mobile communication device is transferred to the wireless mobile communication device through a wireless mobile communication device information transfer means.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the wireless mobile communication device information transfer means comprises a wireless communication module.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the wireless communication module is selected from the group consisting of:

an infrared device, a Bluetooth module, and an 802.11 module.

48. The method of claim 1, wherein certificate revocation lists are transferred to the wireless mobile communication device through a wireless mobile communication device information transfer means.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the wireless mobile communication device information transfer means comprises a serial port or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port.

50. The method of claim 48, wherein the wireless mobile communication device information transfer means comprises an infrared device, a Bluetooth module, or an 802.11 module.

51. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message is received by the wireless mobile communication device through means for providing a wireless infrastructure and through means for providing a wireless network.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein means for providing a message server transmits the encoded message through the means for providing the wireless infrastructure to the wireless mobile communication device.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the means for providing a message server receives the encoded message from a message sender.

54. The method of claim 1, wherein a message server transmits the encoded message through a wireless infrastructure and a wireless network to the wireless mobile communication device, wherein the encoded message comprises a plurality of encrypted session keys, wherein the message server determines the encrypted session key associated with the wireless mobile communication device, and wherein the message server reorganizes the encoded message such that the encoded message is sent to the wireless mobile communication device without containing at least one encrypted session key that is not associated with the wireless mobile communication device.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the encoded message comprises a digital signature, and wherein the message server verifies the digital signature and sends to the wireless mobile communication device a result of the digital signature verification.

56. The method of claim 1, wherein the device receives inputted security information during the second decoding operation in order to have an encrypted session key decrypted.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the security information comprises a password.

58. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication is produced before the second decoding operation.

59. The method of claim 1 wherein producing the indication comprises producing a new message indication on a display of the wireless mobile communication device.

60. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that cause a data processor to perform a method that processes an encoded message at a wireless mobile communication device, said method comprising the steps of:

performing by the wireless mobile communication device a first decoding operation upon the encoded message so as to generate a partially decoded message, wherein the first decoding operation performs at least one of the decoding operations which are to be performed upon the encoded message;

storing the partially decoded message to a memory of the wireless mobile communication device;

producing an indication of receipt of the message after completion of the first decoding operation and after the partially decoded message is stored to the memory;

retrieving the partially decoded message from the memory in response to a request to access the received message; and

performing by the wireless mobile communication device a second decoding operation upon the partially decoded message after receiving the request to access the received message so as to generate a decoded message for use within the wireless mobile communication device;

wherein the message is encoded by being signed and then encrypted, wherein the first decoding operation performed before receiving the request to access the received message comprises decoding operations associated with transmission encoding, retrieval of at least one decryption key, and partial decryption of the message using the retrieved decryption key, wherein the partial decryption of the message does not involve decrypting a signature of the message; and

wherein the second decoding operation comprises decryption of the partially decoded message using the retrieved decryption key and signature verification upon the decrypted message.

61. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 60 wherein the indication is produced before the second decoding operation.

62. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 60 wherein, in the method, producing the indication comprises producing a new message indication on a display of the wireless mobile communication device.

63. A system that processes an encoded message at a wireless mobile communication device, wherein a plurality of decoding operations are to be performed upon the encoded message before the message is used within the wireless mobile communication device, said system comprising:

a first decoding stage having a data access connection to the encoded message, said first decoding stage performing a first decoding operation upon the encoded message so as to generate a partially decoded message, wherein the first decoding stage performs at least one of the plurality of decoding operations;

a memory that stores the partially decoded message;

wherein the system produces an indication of receipt of the message after completion of the first decoding operation and after the partially decoded message is stored to the memory, and

a second decoding stage having a data access connection to the partially decoded message stored in the memory, wherein the second decoding stage performs a second decoding operation upon the partially decoded message in response to a request to access the received message so as to generate a decoded message for use within the wireless mobile communication device;

said first decoding stage and said second decoding stage executing on a data processor of the wireless mobile communication device;

wherein the message is encoded by being signed and then encrypted, wherein the first decoding operation performed before receiving the request to access the received message comprises decoding operations associated with transmission encoding, retrieval of at least one decryption key, and partial decryption of the message using the retrieved decryption key, wherein the partial decryption of the message does not involve decrypting a signature of the message; and

wherein the second decoding operation comprises decryption of the partially decoded message using the retrieved decryption key and signature verification upon the decrypted message.

64. The system of claim 63 wherein the indication is produced before the second decoding operation.

65. The system of claim 63 wherein the indication produced by the system comprises a new message indication provided on a display of the wireless mobile communication device.