Mobile Boarding Pass Security via Segmented Barcodes
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing systems for delivering and verifying mobile boarding passes are vulnerable to security risks, as two-dimensional barcodes can be intercepted and used for fraudulent access, allowing attackers to bypass security checkpoints.
Innovation Solution
A method of securely delivering and verifying mobile boarding passes by creating a digital certificate containing boarding pass data, encrypting it with multiple tokens, encoding it into two-dimensional barcodes, and decrypting it using the same tokens at security checkpoints, ensuring only valid digital certificates are recognized.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If two-dimensional barcodes are used for mobile boarding passes, then ease of operation and convenience are improved, but security vulnerability increases due to ability to intercept and duplicate barcodes
Solution Approach 1:
The boarding pass information is segmented into multiple separate two-dimensional barcodes, each containing only a portion of the complete data. The barcodes are arranged in a grid pattern where no single barcode contains sufficient information to forge a valid boarding pass. This segmentation prevents attackers from duplicating a single barcode to gain fraudulent access, while still maintaining the convenience of mobile display.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single two-dimensional barcode to a three-dimensional arrangement of multiple barcodes stacked vertically on the mobile device display. This adds a temporal dimension where barcodes must be read in a specific sequence and combination, preventing simple duplication attacks while maintaining ease of operation through automatic detection and processing by checkpoint systems.
2Reliability
If multiple encrypted barcodes are implemented, then security is improved by preventing fraudulent access, but device complexity increases due to encryption and verification processes
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of implementing complex encryption algorithms in mobile devices, the patent uses simplified copying mechanisms where the mobile device displays multiple barcodes that are cryptographic copies of the boarding pass information. The actual decryption and verification complexity remains on the checkpoint system, while the mobile device only needs to display the pre-generated barcode images, reducing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary verification system at the checkpoint that handles the complex decryption and validation processes. The mobile device acts as a simple intermediary that displays the barcodes, while the checkpoint system performs the computationally intensive cryptographic operations, distributing complexity away from the consumer device.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method of securely delivering and verifying a mobile boarding pass which validates the mobile boarding pass. An example method includes receiving boarding pass data for a traveler, creating a digital certificate containing the boarding pass data, encrypting the digital certificate, encoding a series of different encrypted digital certificates into a series of different two-dimensional barcodes, providing the series of different two-dimensional barcodes to a mobile communication device of the traveler in advance of arrival at a security checkpoint, receiving decoded barcode data in one or more of the two-dimensional barcodes from a barcode reader at the security checkpoint, decrypting the decoded barcode data using the plurality of different tokens, and identifying a valid digital certificate containing boarding pass data in the decoded barcode data.