Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Multiple computer communication using cryptography – Security kernel or utility
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-25
2002-05-14
Decady, Albert (Department: 2132)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Multiple computer communication using cryptography
Security kernel or utility
C713S167000, C713S170000, C713S171000, C713S156000, C713S180000, C380S030000, C705S074000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06389536
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for verifying use qualifications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the development of networks, intellectual properties represented by digital information such as software and multimedia data are growing rapidly. The digital information can be duplicated easily and illegally without leaving evidence. Hence, there is a problem with the protection of a copyright on digital information.
Tickets are commonly used as the representation of a right for use and attempts to digitize them have been carried out. However, this poses the same copyright protection problem as described above.
A conventional technique for verifying qualifications for using software is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,186 (hereinafter referred to as the prior art). This technique, which implements access control of software, can also be used to digitize tickets by acknowledging use qualifications in a manner that sees whether given encrypted information is correctly decrypted, instead of decrypting encrypted software.
With the prior art, encrypted software is distributed, and when a user wishes to use the software, information for decrypting (user key) is purchased from a software vendor. RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) public key cryptography is used for encryption, and a value obtained by performing a predetermined operation on a private key of an RSA public key pair and user identification information is used as a user key.
The prior art employs an RSA-based authentication system which is computatively complex. According to Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryptography (second edition), Wiley, 1996, by use of the RSA cryptography that uses modulus of 1024 bits and public key of eight bits, a workstation (SPARC2) requires 0.97 seconds for signature and 0.08 seconds for verification to process 1024 bits of data. Accordingly, devices such as an IC card, which have much smaller CPU power and memory than those of workstations, have a problem that too much time is required for authentication.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problem and its object is to implement a use qualification verification device which enables even devices having small CPU power and memory to perform authentication fast.
To solve the above-mentioned problem, a use qualification verification device according to Claim
1
comprises a proof support information issuance unit, a verification unit, and a proof unit. The proof support information issuance unit comprises: a proof information management part that manages proof information: used for authentication of use qualifications; a private information management part that manages private information; a first unidirectional function computation part used to compute proof support information; a proof support information computation part that computes proof support information; and a first communication part. The verification unit comprises: a proof information memory part that stores proof information; a challenge information computation part that computes challenge information; a second unidirectional function computation part; a response information verification part that verifies response information; and a second communication part. Furthermore, the proof unit comprises: a private information memory part that stores private information; a proof support information management part that manages proof support information; a third unidirectional function computation part; a response information computation part that computes response information; and a third communication part.
A use qualification verification device according to Claim
2
comprises a proof support information issuance unit, a verification unit, and a proof unit. The proof support information issuance unit comprises: a proof information management part that manages proof information; a private information management part that manages private information; a first unidirectional function computation part used to compute proof support information; a proof support information computation part that computes proof support information; and a first communication part. The verification unit comprises: a first private information memory part that stores private information; a first proof support information management part that manages proof support information; a challenge information computation part that computes challenge information; a second unidirectional function computation part; a response information verification part that verifies response information; and a second communication part. Furthermore, the proof unit comprises: a second private information memory part that stores private information; a second proof support information management part that manages proof support information; a third unidirectional function computation part; a response information computation part that computes response information; and a third communication part.
A use qualification verification device according to Claim
3
is a use qualification verification device set forth in Claim
1
or
2
, wherein the proof information management part manages a use limitation description, which gives information indicating use conditions, together with proof information, and the proof support information management part manages the use limitation description together with proof support information, and the use limitation description is used to compute proof support information in the proof part and response information in the proof part.
A use qualification verification device according to Claim
4
is a use qualification verification device set forth in Claim
1
through
3
, wherein the use qualification verification device includes a decryption part that, if use qualifications are acknowledged, decrypts information by using proof information or a value obtained from the proof information as a decryption key of the decryption part.
A use qualification verification device according to Claim
5
is a use qualification verification device set forth in Claim
1
through
4
, wherein the use qualification verification device includes a history management part that manages a history of use qualification verifications and a first proof support information management part manages transfer information together with proof support information, the challenge information further contains transfer information, and the transfer information is stored in the history management part during use qualification verification.
A use qualification verification device according to Claim
6
comprises a proof support information issuance unit, a verification unit, and a proof unit. The proof support information issuance unit comprises: a proof information management part that manages proof information used for authentication of use qualifications; a private information management part that manages private information; a first unidirectional function computation part that, to at least the private information managed by the private information management part, applies a unidirectional function whose inverse function is at least computationally difficult to obtain; a proof support information computation part that computes proof support information based on the private information managed by the private information management part and the computation results of the first unidirectional function computation part; and a first communication part that sends and receives information in the process of computation of proof support information. The verification unit comprises: a proof information memory part that stores proof information; a first challenge information computation part that computes first challenge information; a second unidirectional function computation part that applies a unidirectional function whose inverse function is at least computationally difficult to obtain; a first response information computation part that lets the second unidirectional function computation part act on received second challenge information to compute first
De'cady Albert
Fuji 'Xerox Co., Ltd.
Zand Kambiz
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