Mobile Messaging Security via Server-Side Message Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless messaging systems face a challenge in balancing efficiency with security, particularly when altering digitally signed or encrypted messages, as modifications compromise security and existing protocols do not adequately address the need for secure transmission of child messages that reference parent messages.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for handling secured messages on mobile devices that allow for digital signatures and encryption while optimizing bandwidth usage by appending parent messages at the server rather than the mobile device, ensuring security and efficiency through selective transmission of message chunks and automatic download of complete messages when necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If the mobile device transmits only new content of a message to the messaging server (to reduce bandwidth usage), then bandwidth consumption is reduced, but the security of digitally signed or encrypted messages is compromised because the server cannot verify signatures or maintain encryption integrity when appending parent messages
Solution Approach 1:
The messaging server performs preliminary actions by storing complete parent messages and their digital signatures in advance. When a child message is received, the server already has the necessary parent message content and signature data ready, allowing it to append the complete message with verified signature without requiring the mobile device to transmit the entire parent message, thus maintaining both bandwidth efficiency and security integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The messaging server acts as an intermediary between the mobile device and the ultimate recipient. It receives the new content from the mobile device, retrieves the stored parent message, verifies the digital signature, appends the complete message, and forwards it to the recipient. This intermediary role allows the system to maintain security verification while reducing the transmission burden on the mobile device
2Reliability
If the complete parent message is transmitted to ensure security and context, then message security and user context are maintained, but bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The message transmission is segmented into two parts: the mobile device transmits only the new content (child message), while the messaging server retrieves and appends the parent message from its storage. This segmentation allows the mobile device to minimize transmission while the server handles the complete message assembly, reducing bandwidth consumption without compromising security or context
Solution Approach 2:
The messaging server creates a copy of the stored parent message and appends it to the new content. Instead of requiring the mobile device to transmit the complete parent message again, the server copies the stored version and combines it with the new content, maintaining message integrity and context while reducing transmission bandwidth requirements
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and software for providing digital security to a child message transmitted from a mobile device to a messaging server, where the mobile device typically does not transmit the parent message with the child message to the messaging server. Whether to apply digital security, such as encryption or a digital signature, or both, is determined, and if the mobile device does not include a complete copy of a parent message for insertion into the child message, the mobile device selectively downloads the parent message from the messaging server prior to the computation of a digital signature or prior to encryption. The systems and methods may also provide a check of the child message size, when the child message includes inserted parent content, to ensure that the child message does not exceed any prescribed limits on message size.