Secure Processing Vault for Digital Content Decryption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital content protection technologies fail to ensure secure distribution and playback, as they rely on software-based security which can be compromised by malicious clients, and decrypted but encoded content remains vulnerable in non-secure environments.
Innovation Solution
A hardware-based secure processing vault system that decrypts and decodes encrypted digital content within a secure environment, using a main processing unit and attached processing complexes with secure processing vaults to isolate and authenticate the decryption and decoding processes, preventing external access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If digital content is decrypted within a non-secure environment to enable playback, then content accessibility is improved, but security against piracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a secure processing vault as an intermediary component between the encrypted content storage and the playback system. This vault acts as a mediator that performs decryption operations in a controlled, secure environment and only releases the decrypted content through authenticated channels to authorized playback devices, thus maintaining security while enabling accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is segmented into distinct secure and non-secure processing zones. The secure processing vault handles sensitive decryption operations separately from the main playback system. This segmentation ensures that even if the non-secure environment is compromised, the core decryption functionality and key materials remain protected in the isolated secure zone.
2Reliability
If virtualization technology is used to isolate digital content player, then distribution control is improved, but system security deteriorates due to hypervisor vulnerabilities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the software-based virtualization security model with a hardware-based secure processing vault. Instead of relying on hypervisor software to provide isolation and control, the system uses dedicated hardware security modules that enforce distribution control through physical and cryptographic mechanisms, making the system resistant to software-based attacks that could compromise virtualization layers.
3Ease of manufacture
If operating system access control is used to protect digital content, then ease of implementation is improved, but security against malicious clients deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The secure processing vault serves as an intermediary layer between the operating system and the encrypted content. While the OS handles high-level access control policies, the vault enforces cryptographic security boundaries, preventing malicious clients from exploiting OS vulnerabilities to access protected content. This dual-layer approach maintains implementation simplicity while significantly enhancing security.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system and method for digital content player with secure processing vault is presented. A system uses an attached processing unit and a local storage area as a hardware-based secure processing vault. The secure processing vault calculates a title key based upon stored device keys, and decrypts encrypted/encoded digital content using the calculated title key. The decryption process results in encoded digital content, which remains within the secure processing vault until the secure processing vault decodes the encoded digital content. The decoded digital content is then passed to a main processing unit or a graphics card for further processing. In one embodiment, a secure processing vault may process multiple threads in parallel. In another embodiment, multiple secure processing vaults may be used to process a single, highly computational thread.