US 2020/0007346 A1 · BLOCKCHAIN BASED DIGITAL CERTIFICATE PROVISIONING OF INTERNET OF THINGS DEVICES

Abstract

A system and method for provisioning an IoT device with a digital certificate without a need for a central Certificate Authority is presented. A blockchain is initiated, with a root certificate presented in an initial block of the blockchain. Said root certificate is subsequently used to sign an authorized certificate. The IoT device is preloaded with a nonce, and a hash of the nonce signed by an authorized certificate is published on the blockchain. The nonce may then be submitted to the blockchain with a self-signed certificate, the presence of the nonce validating the self-signed certificate. The blockchain provides a final single view of a true state of the digital certificates in the system and their respective authority and validity.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for provisioning a device with a digital certificate comprising:

loading a nonce onto the device;
publishing a hash of the nonce on a blockchain, signed by an authorized digital certificate;
in response to loading the nonce onto the device and publishing the hash of the nonce on the blockchain, publishing a message comprising the digital certificate and the nonce on the blockchain via an intermediary;
and
rejecting a validity of the digital certificate if the blockchain does not comprise the message.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

16/297,587Filed 9 Mar 2019

Priority

28 Jun 2018

Published

2 Jan 2020

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

H04L 9/3263
Including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity…:…
H04L 9/0643
The encryption apparatus using shift registers or memories for block-wise or stream coding, e.g. DES systems or RC4; Hash functions;…
H04L 9/3239
Using cryptographic hash functions: involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
H04L 9/3247
Including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity…:…

Blockchain based digital certificate provisioning of internet of things devices

Life of this patent

Blockchain based digital certificate provisioning of internet of things devices

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18