Sensor-Based Constraint Policy for Mobile Data Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional mobile computing devices lack mechanisms to authenticate and ensure the integrity of sensor readings, which can be modified by users or malicious software, leading to inaccurate data consumption by applications and cloud services.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a sensor-based constraint policy that seals secret data, allowing access only when sensor readings meet predefined conditions, such as location, proximity, or velocity, using cryptographic secure operations within a trusted hardware or software module to prevent unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If sensor readings are made accessible to applications and users, then ease of operation and application functionality are improved, but data integrity and authenticity are compromised as users or malicious software can modify sensor values
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments sensor data into two distinct forms: sealed representations that maintain integrity and cannot be modified, and unsealed representations that applications can access. This segmentation allows applications to use sensor data functionally while preventing modification, as the sealed form acts as an immutable reference that verifies authenticity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a trusted computing module as an intermediary between sensors and applications. This module seals sensor readings and provides controlled access through unsealing operations that verify constraints. The intermediary ensures that applications receive authentic data without direct access to raw sensor values, preventing modification while maintaining functionality.
2Reliability
If secret data is protected through encryption and access control, then data security is improved, but access to the data becomes restricted and less accessible to authorized users
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic access control where secret data transitions between sealed (inaccessible) and unsealed (accessible) states based on constraint satisfaction. Authorized users can access secret data when they meet predefined conditions such as location or time constraints, making the access control dynamic rather than static. This resolves the contradiction by allowing restricted access that adapts to authorization conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the state parameters of secret data from permanently encrypted to conditionally decryptable. By introducing constraint-based unsealing mechanisms, the system allows secret data to transition from a sealed state (high security) to an unsealed state (accessible) when specific parameters like location, time, or user identity satisfy predefined conditions.
3Measurement precision
If sensor-based constraints are enforced to ensure data authenticity, then measurement precision and trustworthiness are improved, but device complexity increases due to additional security mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex security verification logic from the main application flow and encapsulates it within a dedicated trusted computing module. By taking out the constraint verification and sealing/unsealing operations into a separate security subsystem, the main application code remains simple while the security mechanisms operate independently, reducing overall system complexity despite enhanced security functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies pertaining to limiting access to secret data through utilization of sensor-based constraints are described herein. A sensor-based constraint is a constraint that can only be satisfied by predefined readings that may be output by at least one sensor on a mobile computing device. If the sensor on the mobile computing device outputs a reading that satisfies the sensor-based constraint, secret data is provided to a requesting application. Otherwise, the requesting application is prevented from accessing the secret data.