Secure Device Driver for Mobile Content Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Digital rights management systems for mobile telephony face challenges due to the need for customizing applications to access encrypted content, which is technically and business-wise undesirable, and result in extra time, storage, and CPU usage for temporary decryption.
Innovation Solution
A digital rights management system for mobile telephones that uses a secure device driver to validate application requests and stream or decrypt content on a block-by-block basis, preventing temporary storage of decrypted data, allowing standard applications to access encrypted content without customization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If content is stored in scrambled form and applications are customized to access it, then security is improved, but device complexity and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
A secure device driver acts as an intermediary between applications and encrypted content on the disk. The driver contains the decryption functionality and security logic, while standard applications can request content without needing custom security code. The driver validates requests, manages keys, and handles decryption transparently, thus maintaining security while eliminating the need for application-level customization.
2Ease of operation
If content is decrypted and stored temporarily for playback, then ease of operation is improved, but loss of time, storage, and CPU usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements continuous decryption during content playback by processing data in real-time as it is read from the disk. Instead of decrypting entire files upfront or storing large temporary decrypted buffers, the secure device driver decrypts content blocks continuously as they are needed for playback, minimizing both time and storage overhead while maintaining smooth content delivery.
3Ease of operation
If content is decrypted and stored temporarily, then ease of operation is improved, but quantity of substance (storage usage) increases
Solution Approach 1:
The content is processed and decrypted in small segments or blocks rather than as complete files. The secure device driver reads encrypted content from the disk in manageable chunks, decrypts only the necessary portions, and delivers them to applications immediately. This segmentation approach minimizes temporary storage requirements while maintaining efficient content access.
4Ease of operation
If content is decrypted and stored temporarily, then ease of operation is improved, but use of energy (CPU usage) increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs decryption only to the extent necessary for current playback needs rather than preemptively decrypting entire content files. The secure device driver decrypts content blocks on-demand as they are required for playback, avoiding unnecessary CPU cycles spent decrypting content that will not be immediately used. This partial action approach reduces overall CPU usage while maintaining smooth content delivery.
Data Source
AI summary
A digital rights management system including a controlled content disk to store content in an encrypted format, and a processor to run a plurality of applications and a secure device driver thereon, the processor being operationally associated with the controlled content disk, the applications being unable to decrypt content from the encrypted format, the secure device driver having a receiving module to receive a request from one of the applications to access the content, a validation module to validate the request based upon a recognized access pattern to the content by the one application, and a transport module to transfer the content from the controlled content disk to the one application, contingent upon a positive result of the validating of the validation module. Related apparatus and methods are also described.