Trusted Intermediary Module for Portable Device Digital Secret Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current solutions for securing digital secrets on portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, face challenges in providing high security with practicality and ease of management, particularly with the complexities of the Trusted Service Manager model and the vulnerabilities of the Host Card Emulation model, which leave users and third parties more susceptible to security breaches.
Innovation Solution
A system that employs a highly secured memory for storing master keys, a keystore outside the secured memory, and a highly trusted intermediary module to manage secure communication between the secured memory, keystore, and third-party applications, establishing and managing trust scores and interaction parameters to ensure secure storage and use of digital secrets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a Trusted Service Manager model is used to manage digital secrets, then security is improved, but device complexity and management overhead increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the trusted service manager functionality from the device and relocates it to a remote server. The server performs key generation, applet provisioning, and security management operations remotely, while the device retains only minimal local components (secured memory with master key, keystore, and trusted intermediary module). This extraction eliminates the complexity of local key management while preserving security through remote centralized control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a trusted intermediary module as a mediator between third-party applications and the secured memory. This intermediary verifies application credentials, manages access permissions, and coordinates communication with the remote server. By inserting this intermediary layer, the system maintains security controls without requiring complex local management infrastructure.
2Ease of operation
If Host Card Emulation model is used, then ease of operation is improved, but security vulnerabilities increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the digital secret storage system into distinct components with different security levels: (1) highly secured memory containing only the master key, (2) keystore for application data, (3) trusted intermediary module for access control, and (4) remote server for centralized management. This segmentation allows simple local operation while maintaining strong security through distributed architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The trusted intermediary module serves as a security mediator that sits between applications and the secured memory. It validates application credentials, enforces access policies, and coordinates with the remote server before allowing any access to digital secrets. This intermediary layer provides Host Card Emulation-style ease of operation while preventing the security vulnerabilities associated with direct application access to credentials.
3Reliability
If larger secured memory is used to store all cryptographic data, then security is improved, but device cost and size increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts most cryptographic data (application keys, applet code, transaction data) from the device's secured memory and stores it remotely on secure servers. The local secured memory retains only the master key and minimal essential data. This extraction dramatically reduces the size requirement for local secured memory while maintaining security through remote storage and on-demand retrieval of cryptographic materials.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for generation, storage, administration and use of one or more digital secrets in association with a portable electronic device. The system comprises a highly secured memory that stores only one or more master keys; a keystore implemented in the portable electronic device outside of the highly secured memory; one or more cryptography applets implemented in the portable electronic device outside of the highly secured memory; and a highly trusted intermediary module (ThIM) implemented outside of the highly secured memory, the ThIM establishes and manages a highly trusted communication conduit between the highly secured memory, the keystore, the one or more cryptography applets, and at least one third party application, wherein the ThIM polls the portable electronic device, the highly secured memory, the keystore, the one or more cryptography applets to determine a trust score, initialization cost, and transaction cost for each component in the portable electronic device, the ThIM providing a trusted third party application acceptable interaction parameters based on the trust score, the initialization cost, and the transaction cost, the ThIM managing highly trusted communications between the trusted third party application and the highly secured memory in accordance with the acceptable interaction parameters.