Primary provisioning of a validation procedure for a terminal

The present invention relates to establishing connections in a network Internet type for terminals, including mobile, especially authentication provisioning data required for the establishment of a connection.

As is well known, establishing connections through such network as the Internet involves the allocation of an address on the network. The allocation address is for most users a dynamic address allocation, performed by a provider with which the user is referenced. We called primary provisioning, or provisioning of primary data the step of providing to a user of the data for establishing a first connection to an ISP. This data includes all parameters all the necessary layers to connect to the ISP, and example the telephone number, the transmission medium used, identification user, password etc. In the case of connections to a service provider using a computer, the primary provisioning is often done by providing the user a CD containing the provisioning data, with temporary address. It is also known to provide the provisioning data primary by mail; the data is then copied by the user at the prompt to using appropriate software.

Currently appear on mobile devices, which also have a function terminal for telephony network. For these devices is the problem of primary provisioning, it being understood that the known solutions for the computers or landlines can not easily be transposed.

It is also known to use for identification or verification of the integrity Posts asymmetric algorithms; Such an asymmetric algorithm uses a public key and a private key, and can in particular be used for the identification of The Internet. A user is assigned a private key and a public key is broadcast and certified by an organizer for this user. The knowledge of the public key does not allow to recover the private key, however, knowledge the public key to verify a signature by the private key. RSA is a known example of asymmetric algorithm. Such an algorithm does not apply to primary provisioning as a public key has value for certification or authentication that insofar as it emanates from an authority who can certify. The primary provisioning is a situation in which such authority does not yet exist.

It has been proposed to use a key inserted in the terminal when manufacturing, while shopping, or a key provided in a kind of plug-in card chip. These solutions are not satisfactory. In fact, for the first two, the key may change after the manufacture or sale of the terminal, for example in the If the user takes out a subscription with a new service provider; Moreover, the owner of the domain, recipient data provisioning, may differ from the owner of the terminal. For the third solution is the problem of the cost of the smart card; Moreover, the owner of domain can be different from owner of the smart card terminal.

ETSI / SMG4 / MExE offers a manual procedure Provisioning a first certificate to a mobile terminal. The certificate is a special certificate of the terminal administrator. The procedure proposed in this standard is as follows. The mobile terminal and the provisioning entity establish a first contact. The user initiates the terminal a certificate request primary provisioning. The provisioning entity sends the certificate primary provisioning, in a signed package; as just explained, the device can not verify the signature of the received packet, because of the absence of a authenticated public key. The terminal therefore calculates and displays the signature of the package received, and prompts the user to validate the signature. The user establishes a separate touch with the provisioning entity, by mail, telephone or other secure connection, and obtains from the signature provisioning entity which should be displayed on the terminal. The user confirms the proposed signing the terminal, if proves that the signature proposed elsewhere by the provisioning entity is identical. The validation of the terminal equivalent to a certificate authentication received.

This procedure has the following disadvantage. The user can validate proposed sign on the terminal, either inadvertently or by mistake, even if it differs from the signature proposed elsewhere by the provisioning entity.

The invention proposes a solution to the authentication problem primary provisioning for mobile devices. It allows a provisioning of primary data, which is simple for the user, and avoids inadvertent validation.

More specifically, the invention provides a data validation process sent from a source to a terminal on a medium, comprising the steps of:<ul><li>sending data from the source to the terminal, on the said medium;</li><li>calculating a signature in the terminal;</li><li>display on the terminal of a prompt entry of a signature;</li><li>receiving at the terminal a signature input by the terminal user;</li><li>comparison in the terminal of the calculated signature and the signature entry the user, and</li><li>data validation based on the results of the step of comparaison.Dans one embodiment, the data is a certificate containing a public key authentication. In this case, it is advantageous that the public key Authentication is the public key of the source said.</li></ul>

In another embodiment, the step of calculating a signature is performed by hashing.

Preferably, the data is primary provisioning data. It may also include application provisioning data.

In yet one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of:<ul><li>computing a signature in the source data sent from;</li><li>sending the signature to the terminal user by another medium.</li></ul>

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear on reading of the following description of embodiments of the invention, given as of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show:<ul><li>1, a diagram of a mobile terminal and a data source;</li><li>Figure 2 is a flowchart of the inventive method.</li></ul>

For authentication data, the invention proposes, instead of displaying the data to compare by asking a simple validation by the user, ask the user to enter data to compare. The effective entry the user data for comparison, or information representing these data, allows the terminal to perform the comparison. The invention avoids untimely data validation, and ensures that certification takes place correctly. The invention also provides certification on the initiative of the source, not just on the initiative of the user.

In the following description, the invention is described with reference to a example. The terminal is a mobile terminal, the source is a service provider, and the data is primary provisioning data.

FIG 1 shows a diagram of the mobile terminal and a source of data. It has come to the figure, the mobile terminal 2, and a data source 4. This data source is in such a provider to the Internet. The mobile terminal and the data source can communicate through a telecommunication network 6, for example a GSM network.

As indicated above, the invention applies to authenticate Data from the source, and sent to the mobile terminal. Those data may be primary provisioning data, or simply a certificate to primary provisioning data authentication sent later. These data are in any case developed in the source, and are sent to the mobile terminal.

The arrow in Figure 8 symbolizes the sending data from the source 4 to the terminal 2 through the GSM network. These data can be sent to the initiative of the source, or on request from the terminal. In the first case, the provisioning data can be sent at the initiative of the source, without that the terminal solicits sending data. In the latter case, the user can initiate as in the process mentioned above MExE a request for obtain a certificate provisioning; the request is received by the source, and data is transmitted. This step is referenced 20 in Figure 2

The data is received by the terminal 2, and is processed by the terminal to calculate a signature. The term "computing a signature" any function for associating a signature to the received data, that is to say a number or An alphanumeric string of generally shorter length than data; the function is injective, or at least the likelihood of data separate have the same signature is weak. The signature under that definition covers a signature classic sense, requiring a key, like a Simple impression obtained by chopping. In the simplest embodiment, the signature is transmitted directly by the source, and the calculating step comprises isolate this signature in the data.

To calculate the signature, one can use a hash function, and for example that of SHA-1 algorithms, MD5 or MD2. The hashing algorithm SHA-1 outputs a 20 byte footprint. an algorithm can be used key-based signature, such as the RSA algorithm ECDSA. One can also combine hash and the calculation of a signature on the fingerprint obtained by hashing; this solution reduces the computation time, because of the smaller volume of data. This step of receiving the data and signature calculation, referenced 22 in the flowchart of Figure 2, following the step 20 of sending data by the source.

After calculating the signature, the terminal 2 displays a prompt to the user 12, so that the user enters into the terminal a signature. In the case of a conventional mobile terminal with a display screen and a keyboard, the term "display" is the print on the screen of a prompt that tells the user he must enter a signature. This prompt can also be displayed by a signal sound, or other means. This display a prompt to the user is symbolized FIG 1 by the arrow 10, and corresponds to the flowchart of Figure 2 in step 24, following step 22.

The terminal then waits for user input of a signature, as shown in the flow chart of Figure 2 by step 26. This step can be limited in time; the terminal may also offer the user to interrupt the validation process; this is not shown in Figure 2. In both cases in the other, validation may be resumed later at the initiative of the source. It is also possible, as in the manual procedure described in the standard MExE validation to the user's initiative; However, contrary to this solution, the invention makes possible a validation on the initiative of the source.

In the diagram of Figure 1, the arrow 14 shows the receipt of a signing by the user from the source, and via another medium. Here means another medium, as in the procedure MExE any lane communication between the source and the user to be considered reliable. he can be a mail transmission by telephone or otherwise. Signing and provided by the source is a signature calculated from the data transmitted to the terminal, knowing the function of the signature computation carried out in the terminal. It is also to provide the signature the user to use a third party other as the source, with which the user has established a trusted relationship.

The user, having procured from the source or third signing expected by the terminal, returns this signature in the terminal. In most cases simple, this entry is made through the terminal keyboard, but other solutions are possible, depending on the data input device available to the terminal. This data input is symbolized by the arrow 16 in Figure 1. In Figure 2, step 28, which follows step 26 corresponds to the reception data.

The terminal, after receiving the signature input by the user, compares signature calculated from data received from the source and the entrance sign by the user; This is shown in the flowchart of Figure 2 at the stage Comparison 30. In the simplest case, the signature provided to the user by another medium is identical to the signature calculated by the terminal. It is also possible that the signature provided to the user by the source or the third party is not identical to the calculated signature: that is the comparison function setting deals with the terminal is not necessarily reduced to a comparison term to term, but may include calculations on the signature input by the user. In all cases, it should be noted that according to the invention a simple validation the user is not enough to validate the data received from the source. The comparison by the terminal enables the terminal to determine whether the signature calculated from data received from the source matches the signature input by the user. If this is the case, the terminal concludes that the data is valid, as indicated in step 32 of the flowchart of Figure 2. If this is not If the terminal can display a new prompt, that is to say, as shown in Figure 2, back to step 24. It is also possible to interrupt the method of validation, or limit the number of signature introductory essay.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the preferred embodiments described above. It applies to other types of terminals, for other types of data, and other authentication algorithms. We might as well use both the invention for authenticating keys to a symmetric algorithm. The invention has been described in the particular case of provisioning data primary; we could still use the invention for data provisioning application. For example, in a banking application could be used the invention to enable the transmission of a customer or account number, a word password, the application options, etc.

In all cases, the invention enables to validate the data transmitted by the source, avoiding inadvertent validation by mere acquiescence the user.