Cryptographic Secret Provisioning for Secure IoT State Transitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing solutions for establishing trust among entities in IoT devices throughout the supply chain lifecycle are inadequate, lacking uniformity and security, especially in industrial networks, where devices transfer between various entities, leading to potential cyber threats.
Innovation Solution
A cryptographic secrets and service provider system generates and provisions sets of cryptographic secrets, maintained on protected memory, with state transitions managed through a brokering agent and distributed ledger, ensuring secure and uniform cryptographic functions across devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If devices transfer between various entities in the supply chain, then device versatility and adaptability improve, but cybersecurity reliability deteriorates due to potential cyber threats
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments cryptographic secrets into multiple components (seeds, derived keys, encryption keys) that are provisioned at different stages of the supply chain. Each entity receives only the specific secret components needed for their role, rather than complete access to all secrets. This segmentation maintains device transfer capability while limiting cyber threat exposure at each stage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary cryptographic secret provisioning during device manufacturing and at each supply chain stage before device transfer. Cryptographic secrets are generated, encrypted, and embedded in advance using secure bootstrapping mechanisms. This preliminary action ensures devices are pre-configured with appropriate security credentials for their destination entity, enabling seamless transfers while maintaining security integrity.
2Manufacturing precision
If cryptographic secrets are provisioned uniformly across all devices, then manufacturing precision improves, but device complexity increases due to secret management overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal cryptographic secret provisioning framework that works across all devices and supply chain stages through a common architecture. The same secret generation, encryption, and provisioning mechanisms are used uniformly from manufacturing through end-use, regardless of device type or entity. This universality achieves manufacturing precision while avoiding the need for device-specific secret management complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a brokering agent as an intermediary that manages cryptographic secret provisioning between entities. The broker handles the complexity of secret generation, encryption, and secure transmission, while devices receive simplified provisioning operations. This intermediary absorbs the secret management complexity, allowing uniform provisioning across devices without increasing device-level complexity.
3Reliability
If state transitions are authorized through centralized control, then cybersecurity reliability improves, but productivity deteriorates due to authorization overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary authorization by embedding cryptographic secrets and permissions in devices during provisioning. State transition permissions are pre-configured through secure bootstrapping, allowing devices to autonomously execute authorized transitions without real-time centralized approval. This preliminary authorization maintains security reliability while eliminating authorization overhead during state transitions, thereby improving productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables devices to autonomously manage their own state transitions using embedded cryptographic credentials. Devices self-verify their authorization to transition states by validating their secret components against transition requirements, without requiring continuous centralized control. This self-service capability maintains security through cryptographic verification while dramatically improving state transition speed by eliminating centralized authorization bottlenecks.
Data Source
AI summary
A system includes a memory device and a processor, operatively coupled with the memory device, to perform operations including receiving, from a device via a brokering agent, a request to provide an encrypted version of a set of secrets data corresponding to a target state of the device, determining whether to authorize the request in view of the brokering agent, and in response to authorizing the request, providing the encrypted version of the set of secrets data and permission to transition to the target state.