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US 7,734,050 B2Granted
Digital certificate pool
AssigneeNissan Technical Center North America, Inc.
InventorsSteve Tengler, Scott Andrews, Ronald Heft
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A wireless vehicle and infrastructure system is described that allows for utilization of a quasi-anonymous common private key/digital certificate pool, such that all vehicles are authenticated to the system, but no one vehicle/user can be readily identified during their use of the system because of their use of set of common private key/digital certificate pairs that are assigned to each vehicle from the pool and are common across multiple vehicles. Vehicle/user anonymity is only temporarily removed during vehicle/user re-authentication and re-issuance of new common private key/digital certificate pairs from the pool in the wireless vehicle and infrastructure system.
Claims35
A method of assigning a plurality of private keys to a vehicle in a wireless system, the method comprising:
- generating a vehicle identifier that is indicative of the vehicle based on at least one of a hardware configuration and a software configuration of the vehicle such that the vehicle identifier changes when the at least one of the hardware configuration and the software configuration changes;
- encrypting the vehicle identifier at the vehicle;
- sending a request for the private keys with the encrypted vehicle identifier from the vehicle to a certificate authority;
- obtaining an authentication of the vehicle based on the encrypted vehicle identifier to assign the private keys to the vehicle;
- selecting the plurality of private keys from a pool of common private keys, at least one of the selected private keys being used for encrypting a message at the vehicle, and each of the private keys in the pool of common private keys being shared by a plurality of vehicles;
- sending the selected private keys to the vehicle;
- and
- storing the selected private keys in the vehicle.
5 more elements
A method of operating a wireless system, the method comprising:
- sending a message to the wireless system from a vehicle by randomly using a different private key/digital certificate pair from a set of valid private key/digital certificate pairs stored on the vehicle to sign the message being sent to the wireless system, the wireless system maintaining a pool of current valid common private key/digital certificate pairs that includes the set of the valid private key/digital certificate pairs, each of the private key/digital certificate pairs in the pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs being shared by and stored in a plurality of vehicles;
- preparing a certificate revocation list message including a list of revoked private key/digital certificate pairs to be revoked;
- revoking a valid private key/digital certificate pair by sending the certificate revocation list message from the wireless system to the vehicle, and the vehicle removing the revoked private key/digital certificate pairs on the certificate revocation list message from the vehicle;
- sending a request for a new currently valid private key/digital certificate pair with an encrypted vehicle identifier from the vehicle to a certificate authority with the vehicle identifier being indicative of the vehicle and based on at least one of a hardware configuration and a software configuration of the vehicle such that the encrypted vehicle identifier changes when the at least one of the hardware configuration and the software configuration changes;
- obtaining an authentication of the vehicle based on the encrypted vehicle identifier to assign the new currently valid private key/digital certificate pair;
- and
- receiving and storing on the vehicle the new currently valid private key/digital certificate pair from the pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs that is selected and assigned by the certificate authority.
4 more elements
A method of operating a vehicle to communicate based on a public-key cryptography using a private key for encrypting a message and a public key for decrypting the message, the method comprising:
- randomly using a different private key/digital certificate pair from a set of valid private key/digital certificate pairs stored on a vehicle to sign or encrypt the message being sent to a wireless system, the wireless system maintaining a pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs that includes the set of the valid private key/digital certificate pairs;
- receiving a certificate revocation list message sent out by the wireless system that contains a list of revoked private key/digital certificate pairs to be revoked;
- and
- replacing a private key/digital certificate pair of the set of stored private key/digital certificate pairs on the vehicle if it is on the certificate revocation list by
- contacting a certificate authority and authenticating the vehicle by sending an encrypted vehicle identifier, which is indicative of the vehicle based on at least one of a hardware configuration and a software configuration of the vehicle such that the vehicle identifier changes when the at least one of the hardware configuration and the software configuration changes,
- selecting a private key/digital certificate pair from the pool of valid common private key/digital certificate pairs, with each of the private keys in the pool of common private keys being shared by another vehicle, and
- receiving and storing on the vehicle a new assigned valid private key/digital certificate pair from the pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs from the certificate authority.
4 more elements
A wireless communication system based on a public-key cryptograph using a private key for encrypting a message and a public key for decrypting the message, the wireless communication system comprising:
- a wireless system maintaining a pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs including a selected set of the valid private key/digital certificate pairs;
- and
- a vehicle adapted to send the message by randomly using a different private key/digital certificate pair from the selected set of valid private key/digital certificate pairs stored on the vehicle to sign the message being sent by the vehicle,
- each of the private key/digital certificate pairs in the pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs being shared by a plurality of vehicles,
- the vehicle being further adapted to generate an encrypted vehicle identifier that is indicative of the vehicle based on at least one of a hardware configuration and a software configuration of the vehicle such that the vehicle identifier changes when the at least one of the hardware configuration and the software configuration changes, send a request for the private key/digital certificate pairs including the encrypted vehicle identifier, and receive and store the selected set of private key/digital certificate pairs.
2 more elements
A vehicle comprising:
- a vehicle component adapted to send a message by randomly using a different private key/digital certificate pair from a set of valid private key/digital certificate pairs stored on the vehicle to sign the message being sent by the vehicle to a wireless system, the wireless system maintaining a pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs that includes the set of the valid private key/digital certificate pairs, each of the private key/digital certificate pairs in the pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs being shared by a plurality of vehicles,
- the vehicle component being further adapted to generate an encrypted vehicle identifier that is indicative of the vehicle based on at least one of a hardware configuration and a software configuration of the vehicle such that the encrypted vehicle identifier changes when the at least one of the hardware configuration and the software configuration changes, send a request for the private key/digital certificate pairs including the encrypted vehicle identifier, and receive and store the private key/digital certificate pairs selected from the pool of currently valid common private key/digital certificate pairs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.