Content Protection via Security Capability Verification
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Content studios and service providers face challenges in ensuring that high-value content is protected by security constraints, as clients may misreport or deceive about their security capabilities, leading to operational complexity and potential poor user experiences.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that verify a client device's supported security capabilities against required security capabilities for content access, where the server determines if the client device meets the necessary security standards before transmitting an encryption key, thereby ensuring secure content playback without relying on client trust and minimizing operational complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the client device reports its security capabilities to the content studio, then the content studio can determine whether to grant access, but the client device may deceive or misreport its capabilities leading to security risks
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of the client device reporting its capabilities to the content studio (trusted model), the patent inverts the approach by having the content studio send security constraint requirements to the client device, and the client device must prove it meets these constraints through cryptographic verification. This inversion eliminates the need to trust client reports while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a license server as an intermediary between the content studio and client device. The license server manages security constraints, verifies client capabilities, and issues licenses. This intermediary handles the complex verification process, reducing the burden on both content studios and client devices while ensuring reliable security capability verification.
2Reliability
If the content studio modifies security constraints, then the security protection can be updated, but operational complexity increases and client experience may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having the content studio pre-define and store multiple sets of security constraints with different protection levels before any client requests content. When a client requests content, the system automatically selects the appropriate pre-defined constraint set based on the content type, eliminating the need for real-time constraint modification and complex client software updates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the security constraint system dynamic by allowing the license server to select different pre-defined constraint sets based on content classification and client license status. This dynamic selection approach allows security constraints to be updated centrally without requiring client software modifications, maintaining both security reliability and operational ease.
3Reliability
If the client device must conform to strict security constraints, then high value content is protected, but the user experience may be hampered by limited device compatibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by implementing a hierarchical security constraint system with multiple protection levels (e.g., high, medium, low). Different content types are assigned different security levels, and clients are evaluated against the appropriate level. This allows highly secure content to be protected while less sensitive content remains accessible to a broader range of devices, balancing content protection with device compatibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for protecting content, comprising receiving, from a client device, a request for an encryption key for encrypting the content comprising a reference associated with the client device, identifying a set of supported security capabilities corresponding to the reference associated with the client device, identifying a set of required security capabilities corresponding to the content associated with the key request, determining if the set of supported security capabilities satisfy the set of required security capabilities, and in response to determining that the supported security capabilities satisfy the set of required security capabilities, transmitting the encryption key to the client device.