Technologies for secure software update using bundles and merkle signatures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10552138-B2
Application number	US-201615267355-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2016
Priority date	Jun 12, 2016
Publication date	Feb 4, 2020
Grant date	Feb 4, 2020

Abstract

Technologies for secure software update include an update server and one or more client computing devices. The update server generates a software release including release components, such as packages and/or bundles, and a version number. The update server generates an integrity hash tree over the software release and a Lamport one-time signature key pair for each node of the integrity hash tree. The update server generates a Merkle signature scheme authentication tree based on the key pairs and signs each node of the integrity hash tree. The update server signs the root of the authentication tree with an anchor private key. A client computing device downloads one or more release components and verifies the release components with the integrity hash tree, the signatures, and the authentication tree. The client computing device verifies the root of the authentication tree with an anchor public key. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computing device for secure software update, the computing device comprising:
a software update module to generate a software release, wherein the software release comprises a plurality of release components and a release version number;
a release integrity module to generate an integrity hash tree over the plurality of release components and the release version number, wherein the integrity hash tree comprises a plurality of hash nodes;
a release authentication module to (i) generate a plurality of Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs, wherein each key pair of the plurality of key pairs corresponds to a hash node of the integrity hash tree, (ii) generate a Merkle signature scheme authentication tree based on the plurality of key pairs, and (iii) generate a plurality of one-time signatures, wherein each one-time signature is generated as a function of a respective hash node of the integrity hash tree and a key pair of the plurality of key pairs corresponding to the respective hash node; and
a root authentication module to sign a root public key of the authentication tree with an anchor private key to generate a signature of the root public key, wherein the anchor private key is paired with an anchor public key.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein to generate the software release comprises to generate a hierarchical organization of the plurality of release components.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of release components comprises a file, a package, or a bundle.

4. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein to generate the integrity hash tree over the plurality of release components and the release version number comprises to:
generate a plurality of leaf hash nodes of the integrity hash tree, wherein each leaf hash node is calculated as a function of a release component or the release version number; and
recursively generate a parent hash node as a function of a first hash node and a second hash node.

5. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein to generate the Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs comprises to generate the Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs with a pseudo-random number generator based on a random number seed.

6. The computing device of claim 5 , wherein the release authentication module is further to generate the random number seed with a hardware-assisted random number generator of the computing device.

7. The computing device of claim 5 , wherein the release authentication module is further to index an entropy multiplexing tree with the release version number to retrieve the random number seed.

8. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed cause a computing device to:
generate a software release, wherein the software release comprises a plurality of release components and a release version number;
generate an integrity hash tree over the plurality of release components and the release version number, wherein the integrity hash tree comprises a plurality of hash nodes;
generate a plurality of Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs, wherein each key pair of the plurality of key pairs corresponds to a hash node of the integrity hash tree;
generate a Merkle signature scheme authentication tree based on the plurality of key pairs;
generate a plurality of one-time signatures, wherein each one-time signature is generated as a function of a respective hash node of the integrity hash tree and a key pair of the plurality of key pairs corresponding to the respective hash node; and
sign a root public key of the authentication tree with an anchor private key to generate a signature of the root public key, wherein the anchor private key is paired with an anchor public key.

9. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 8 , wherein to generate the software release comprises to generate a hierarchical organization of the plurality of release components.

10. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 8 , wherein to generate the Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs comprises to generate the Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs with a pseudo-random number generator based on a random number seed.

11. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 10 , further comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed cause the computing device to generate the random number seed using a hardware-assisted random number generator of the computing device.

12. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 10 , further comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed cause the computing device to index an entropy multiplexing tree with the release version number to retrieve the random number seed.

13. A computing device for secure software update, the computing device comprising:
a root authentication module to (i) receive, from an update server, a root public key of a Merkle signature scheme authentication tree associated with a software release and a signature of the root public key, (ii) verify the root public key with the signature of the root public key and an anchor public key that is provisioned to the computing device, and (iii) verify the authentication tree with the root public key in response to verification of the root public key;
a software update module to receive, from the update server, a release component of the software release, a hash node of an integrity hash tree that corresponds to the release component, and a Lamport one-time signature corresponding to the hash node of the integrity hash tree;
a release integrity module to verify the release component with the hash node of the integrity hash tree;
a release authentication module to (i) verify the hash node of the integrity hash tree with the one-time signature, and (ii) verify the one-time signature with the authentication tree in response to verification of the authentication tree;
wherein the software update module is further to install the release component in response to verification of the release component, the hash node, and the one-time signature.

14. The computing device of claim 13 , wherein:
the root authentication module is further to receive the authentication tree from the update server; and
to verify the authentication tree comprises to verify the authentication tree in response to receipt of the authentication tree.

15. The computing device of claim 13 , wherein:
the root authentication module is further to (i) receive a random number seed from the update server, (ii) generate a plurality of Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs with a pseudo-random number generator based on the random number seed, and (iii) generate the authentication tree based on the plurality of key pairs; and
to verify the authentication tree comprises to verify the authentication tree in response to generation of the authentication tree.

16. The computing device of claim 13 , wherein:
the root authentication module is further to (i) generate an entropy multiplexing tree as a function of a root seed provisioned to the computing device, (ii) index the entropy multiplexing tree with a release version number of the software release to retrieve a random number seed, (iii) generate a plurality of Lamport one-time signature public-private key pairs with a pseudo-random number generator based on the random number seed, and (iv) g

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Smith Ned M
• Stoppa Igor
• Pepper Timothy C

Classifications

• H04L9/3247

  involving digital signatures · CPC title

• G06F21/74

  operating in dual or compartmented mode, i.e. at least one secure mode · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• H04L9/0894

  Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage · CPC title

• H04L9/0662

  with particular pseudorandom sequence generator · CPC title