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US 10,771,448 B2Granted
Secure feature and key management in integrated circuits
AssigneeCryptography Research, Inc.
InventorsPaul Carl Kocher, Benjamin Che-Ming Jun, Andrew John Leiserson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mechanism for providing secure feature and key management in integrated circuits is described. An example integrated circuit includes a secure memory to store a secret key, and a security manager core, coupled to the secure memory, to receive a digitally signed command, verify a signature associated with the command using the secret key, and configure operation of the integrated circuit using the command.
Claims11
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a security manager core of an integrated circuit, a digitally signed message comprising a signature and feature update information, the feature update information comprising a command that, when executed by the security manager core;
- enables the security manager core to update a functionality of a hardware feature of the integrated circuit to be at least one of locked, unlocked, or modified;
- obtaining, by the security manager core, a secret key from a secure memory of the integrated circuit;
- verifying, by the security manager core, the signature of the digitally signed message using the secret key;
- and
- executing, by the security manager core, the command to update the functionality of the hardware feature when the signature is verified, wherein the executing the command comprises:
- sending, by the security manager core, a first signal to the hardware feature to lock the functionality of the hardware feature when the feature update information specifies the functionality is to be locked;
- sending, by the security manager core, a second signal to the hardware feature to unlock the functionality of the hardware feature when the feature update information specifies the functionality is to be unlocked;
- or
- sending, by the security manager core, a third signal to the hardware feature to modify the functionality of the hardware feature when the feature update information specifies the functionality is to be modified, wherein the command is associated with an encrypted payload;
- deriving, by the security manager core, a mixed key using a base key accessible to the security manager core;
- deriving, by the security manager core, a transport key using the mixed key;
- decrypting, by the security manager core, the encrypted payload using the transport key to obtain a decrypted payload;
- and
- delivering, by the security manager core, the decrypted payload to the hardware feature.
12 more elements
An integrated circuit comprising:
- a secure memory to store a secret key;
- a security manager (SM) core coupled to the secure memory, the SM core to:
- receive a digitally signed message comprising a signature and a command that, when executed by the security manager core enables the security manager core to update a functionality of a hardware feature of the integrated circuit to be at least one of locked, unlocked, or modified;
- verify the signature of the digitally signed message using the secret key;
- and
- execute the command to update the functionality of the hardware feature when the signature is verified, wherein the SM core, in connection with execution of the command, is to:
- send a first signal to the hardware feature to lock the functionality of the hardware feature when the feature update information specifies the functionality is to be locked;
- send a second signal to the hardware feature to unlock the functionality of the hardware feature when the feature update information specifies the functionality is to be unlocked;
- and
- send a third signal to the hardware feature to modify the functionality of the hardware feature when the feature update information specifies the functionality is to be modified;
- an extractor coupled to the SM core;
- and
- a plurality of sub-extractors coupled to the extractor, wherein each of the plurality of sub-extractors is also coupled to one of the plurality of hardware features.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.