Offline Payment Certificate Management via Trusted Execution Environment

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing offline payment methods on consumer terminal devices are cumbersome and insecure, particularly when selecting a payment application from a third-party payment application, as they require invoking the payment client and generating an offline payment identity certificate directly, leading to low efficiency and security concerns.

Innovation Solution

The method involves the third-party payment application obtaining an offline payment certificate from the target payment application, which is then stored locally on the terminal device, allowing for quick and secure offline payments by interacting with the payment application through a trusted execution environment (TEE) for authentication and storage, ensuring only the authorized device can use the certificate.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If the payment client is invoked to perform offline payment procedure when selecting a payment application from third-party payment application, then the offline payment can be completed, but the procedure processing becomes cumbersome and time-consuming

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoffline payment processing speedVSAvoidpayment procedure complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The payment certificate is pre-generated and stored in the TEE during the account binding phase. When offline payment is needed, the certificate is directly retrieved and used without invoking the payment client or regenerating the certificate, thus eliminating the cumbersome procedure and reducing time consumption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The payment certificate generation and storage process is extracted from the payment execution flow. The certificate is generated in advance during account binding and stored securely in TEE, separating the certificate preparation from the actual payment operation, allowing direct use during offline payments.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Ease of operation

If the offline payment identity certificate is directly obtained after receiving by the consumer terminal device, then the user can easily obtain the certificate, but the security is relatively low

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecertificate acquisition easeVSAvoidoffline payment security
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The TEE acts as a secure intermediary between the payment application and the certificate. The certificate is generated and stored within the TEE's secure environment, and only the TEE can access and use the certificate. This intermediary mechanism maintains security while allowing easy certificate acquisition by the payment application through authorized requests.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The TEE provides a localized secure environment within the terminal device for certificate storage and management. The security properties are concentrated in the TEE region, where the certificate is protected by hardware-based security mechanisms, while the rest of the system can access it through controlled interfaces.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

3Productivity

If the payment client performs offline payment procedure by invoking another payment application, then the payment transaction can be processed, but the procedure becomes cumbersome requiring multiple client interactions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepayment transaction efficiencyVSAvoidpayment system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The certificate generation, storage, and usage functions are merged into a unified TEE-based mechanism that serves all payment applications. Instead of having separate payment client procedures for each application, the TEE provides a common secure infrastructure that all applications can use, simplifying the overall system architecture.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The TEE-based certificate management system provides universal functionality for all payment applications integrated in the terminal device. A single certificate storage and retrieval mechanism serves multiple payment applications, eliminating the need for separate payment client procedures for each application.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentEP3474211B1Offline payment method and device
Publication Date: 2022.08.03 ADVANCED NEW TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD
  • EP3474211B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3474211B1 patent drawingFigure 2A
  • EP3474211B1 patent drawingFigure 2B

AI summary

The present application provides an offline payment method and device. The method includes the following: obtaining, by a third-party payment application, an identity authentication identifier of a user that sends an offline payment request when the third-party payment application receives the request that corresponds to a target payment application; obtaining, by the third-party payment application, an offline payment certificate issued by the target payment application to the user and stored in the terminal device, when it is determined that the obtained identity authentication identifier is verified; and providing, by the third-party payment application, the offline payment certificate for an offline payment service party, so that the offline payment service party requests the target payment application to process offline payment of the user based on the offline payment certificate. The present application makes user's payment quicker and more secure when a payment application is selected from a third-party payment application integrated into a consumer terminal device to make offline payment.