Randomized Timeouts for Wireless Security
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing short-range wireless communication connections are vulnerable to hacking, as hackers can exploit known timeout periods to hijack connections or inject malicious data.
Innovation Solution
Implementing randomized timeout periods for short-range communication operations, ensuring that the responding device does not know the exact timeout period, thereby preventing unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fixed timeout period is used for short-range communication operations, then the communication protocol is simple and easy to implement, but the connection becomes vulnerable to hacking and timeout period can be exploited by attackers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the Dynamics principle by making the timeout period variable rather than fixed. The system dynamically selects timeout values from a predefined range, allowing the timeout parameter to change based on operational needs while maintaining protocol simplicity. This resolves the contradiction by providing security through variability without requiring complex adaptive algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements Parameter changes by modifying the timeout period parameter within a specified range. Instead of using a single fixed timeout value, the system varies the timeout parameter across multiple possible values, making it difficult for attackers to predict or exploit the exact timeout period while keeping the implementation straightforward.
2Reliability
If a randomized timeout period is implemented, then security against hacking is improved, but the complexity of timeout management increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses Dynamics by implementing a randomized timeout selection mechanism that dynamically chooses from a predefined range of timeout values. This approach provides security through unpredictability while maintaining manageable complexity by limiting the randomization to a constrained set of predefined options rather than allowing arbitrary timeout values.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent appliesParameter changes by varying the timeout parameter within a predefined range. The system changes the timeout value based on random selection from acceptable bounds, providing security through parameter variability while keeping the complexity manageable by establishing clear minimum and maximum limits for the timeout parameter.
3Reliability
If the timeout period is kept secret, then security is enhanced, but the device must generate and manage randomized timeout values
Solution Approach 1:
The system implementsSelf-service by having the communication device autonomously generate and manage its own randomized timeout values. Each device independently selects timeout periods from its predefined range without requiring coordination or information sharing with other devices, thereby keeping the timeout period secret while maintaining operational functionality through self-managed randomization.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus configured to generate, for transmission to a wireless communication device via a short-range communication protocol, a request related to a short-range communication operation, select a randomized timeout period for the short-range communication operation and initiate a timer set to the randomized timeout period, wherein the wireless communication device is to respond to the request prior to expiration of the timer.