Secure Element Replay Protection Using Compact Version Tables
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Solution Overview
Problem
Secure elements in IoT devices face challenges in protecting digital information from replay attacks due to limited storage capacity, as existing solutions requiring integrity tables consume excessive memory resources.
Innovation Solution
A secure element system that loads and processes segmented digital information from an external memory, using version numbers and identifiers to pre-process data with cryptographic algorithms, reducing storage needs by employing a version table instead of integrity tables.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an integrity table is loaded into the internal memory of the secure element to verify digital information, then the security level against replay attacks is improved, but the storage capacity requirement increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential version number information from the digital information segments and stores it in a compact version table in internal memory, rather than storing complete integrity tables. This extraction principle reduces the storage capacity from kilobytes to bytes while maintaining security verification capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of storing comprehensive integrity verification data (fingerprints/hashes) in internal memory as done in prior art, the patent inverts the approach by storing only version numbers and performing cryptographic verification using these compact identifiers. This inversion dramatically reduces memory requirements while achieving the same security goal.
2Ease of manufacture
If digital information is stored in external memory outside the secure element, then the cost of the secure element is reduced, but the protection against replay attacks becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary cryptographic processing to the digital information segments before they are stored in external memory. Version numbers are extracted and stored in a version table, and cryptographic algorithms are executed using these version numbers to generate verification data. This preliminary action ensures that when information is loaded, its authenticity can be verified without requiring large internal storage, thus enabling cost-effective secure elements with strong replay attack protection.
Data Source
AI summary
A secure element has a secure processor for securely processing the digital information stored in a memory external to the secure element, and a loading and pre-processing system configured to load the digital information from the external memory into the secure element, and pre-process said digital information by executing a cryptographic algorithm before processing said digital information by the secure processor. The system reads a version number of the digital information that has been loaded, from an internal memory of the secure element, and uses said version number in executing the cryptographic algorithm.