Virtual Secure Elements in Computing Systems based on ARM Processors

Abstract

The invention comprises a computer system which is based on ARM processors (for example, popular mobile devices and Chromebooks), wherein the ARM processor provides fully hardware-isolated runtime environments for an operating system (OS) and Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) with multiple virtual secure elements (VSE's). The isolation is performed by hardware ARM Security Extensions added to ARMv6 processors and higher and controlled by VSE software. The invention therefore comprises multiple managed VSE's running in the TEE on one or more processor cores with dedicated memory and storage and used to provide a secure element function in a computer system even without a separate hardware secure element. The invention provides security for applications like payment methods without need to integrate the hardware secure element. In addition, embodiments of the invention do not require any modification to the OS system code or application software such as for example, a payment application.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.