US 2014/0006738 A1Published application

Method of authenticating a memory device by a host device

AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

InventorsYuji NAGAI, Taku KATO, Tastuyuki MATSUSHITA, Shinichi MATSUKAWA, Yasufumi TSUMAGARI

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Abstract

A method of authenticating a memory device by a host device, wherein the memory device, a memory device controller, a memory card containing the memory device and the controller, and the host device are manufactured by a memory device manufacturer, a controller manufacturer, a memory card manufacturer, and a host device manufacturer, respectively. The memory device comprises a first area, a second area for storing key index information, which is written by the memory device manufacturer before shipping the memory device, and a third area for storing a set of encrypted keys whose index corresponds to the key index information, which is written by the memory device manufacturer before shipping the memory device. After the memory device is shipped, the first area is not readable or writable by the controller, the second area readable but not writable by the controller, and the third area readable and writable by the controller.

Claims1

Dependent claims

A method of authenticating a memory device by a host device, wherein

a memory device is manufactured by a memory device manufacturer,
a controller to control a memory device is manufactured by a controller manufacturer,
a memory card containing the memory device and the controller is manufactured by a memory card manufacturer, and
a host device is manufactured by a host device manufacturer,
the memory device comprising
a first memory area that is not readable and writable by the controller after shipping the memory device, in which first data is written,
a second memory area that is readable but not writable by the controller after shipping the memory device, in which second data and key index information is written by the memory device manufacturer before the shipping,
a third memory area that is readable and writable by the controller after shipping the memory device, in which third data that is a set of encrypted keys whose index corresponds to the key index information is written by the memory card manufacturer before shipping the memory card, and
a circuit to operate the first data in the memory device,
wherein the authentication comprising the steps of:
reading the third data from the third memory area;
sending the third data to the host device;
reading the second data from the second memory area;
sending the second data to the host device;
reading the key index information from the second memory area;
sending the key index information to the host device;
reading the first data from the first memory area;
operating the first data using the circuit inside the memory device;
sending the result data to the host device;
authenticating the memory device using the data received by the host device.

17 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.