Friend key sharing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11777936-B2
Application number	US-201917251140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2019
Priority date	Jun 11, 2018
Publication date	Oct 3, 2023
Grant date	Oct 3, 2023

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed relating to sharing access to electronically-secured property. In some embodiments, a first computing device having a first secure element receives, from a second computing device associated with an owner of the electronically-secured property, an indication that the second computing device has transmitted a token to server computing system, the token permitting a user of the first computing device access to the electronically-secured property. Based on the received indication, the first computing device sends a request for the transmitted token to the server computing system and, in response to receiving the requested token, securely stores the received token in the first secure element of the first computing device. The first computing device subsequently transmits the stored token from the first secure element of the first device to the electronically-secured property to obtain access to the electronically-secured property based on the token.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored therein that are executable by a first computing device having a first secure element circuit to cause the first computing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a second computing device associated with an owner of an electronically-secured property, an indication that the second computing device has transmitted a token to a server computing system, wherein the token permits a user of the first computing device to access the electronically-secured property, wherein the indication is not received via the server computing system;
based on the received indication, sending a request for the token to the server computing system, wherein the request includes first information indicating that the first computing device includes the first secure element circuit;
receiving the token, wherein receiving occurs after the server computing system has verified, using the first information, that the first computing device includes the first secure element circuit;
securely storing the received token in the first secure element circuit of the first computing device; and
transmitting the stored token from the first secure element circuit of the first computing device to the electronically-secured property to obtain access to the electronically-secured property based on the token.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the received indication includes a universal resource locator (URL) assigned by the server computing system to the token in response to the second computing device transmitting the token to the server computing system.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the received indication is a text message received by a messaging application of the first computing device.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the text message is directed to an identity associated with the first computing device, and wherein the identity includes a phone number.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the received indication includes a cryptographic key used by a second secure element circuit of the second computing device to encrypt the token, and
wherein the operations further comprise:
the first secure element circuit of the first computing device using the cryptographic key to decrypt the encrypted token.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise:
the first secure element circuit sending a public key to the server computing system, wherein the server computing system is configured to use the public key to further encrypt the encrypted token; and
the first secure element circuit using a private key to decrypt the further encrypted token.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first information includes a public key maintained by the first secure element circuit, and wherein the operations further comprise: the first secure element circuit receiving, from the server computing system, a certificate issued for the maintained public key; and
wherein the transmitting includes the first secure element circuit transmitting the issued certificate to the electronically-secured property to be permitted access to the electronically-secured property.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the first information includes a certificate chain for the public key maintained by the first secure element circuit.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the token is generated by the electronically-secured property.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the token is generated by a second secure element circuit of the second computing device.

11. A method, comprising:
generating, by an electronically-secured property, a token usable by a first computing device associated with an owner to share access to the electronically-secured property;
issuing, by the electronically-secured property, the generated token to the first computing device, wherein the first computing device is configured to transmit the token to a server computing system for storage and to transmit a corresponding indication of the storage to a second computing device, wherein the indication is not transmitted via the server computing system, wherein the second computing device is configured to:
after receiving the transmitted indication, retrieve the token from the server computing system using a set of information indicating that the second computing device includes a secure element circuit;
after the server computing system verifies the set of information, receive, from the server computing system, the token; and
securely store the retrieved token in the secure element circuit of the second computing device;

receiving, by the electronically-secured property, the securely stored token from the secure element circuit of the second computing device; and
permitting, by the electronically-secured property, access in response to a verification of the received token.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
sending, by the electronically-secured property, a receipt to the first computing device in response to receiving the token from the secure element circuit of the second computing device.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of information includes a public key of the secure element circuit, and wherein the permitting includes verifying the received token and a certificate received from the secure element circuit for the public key of the secure element circuit.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the transmitted indication is a text message including 1) a universal resource locator (URL) assigned by the server computing system to retrieve the token and 2) a cryptographic key usable by the secure element circuit of the second computing device to decrypt the retrieved token.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the electronically-secured property is a vehicle.

16. A first computing device, comprising:
a first secure element circuit;
a processor; and
memory having program instructions stored therein that are executable by the processor to cause the first computing device to perform operations comprising:
securely storing, in the first secure element circuit, a token that permits access to an electronically-secured property having an owner associated with the first computing device;
sending the token from the first secure element circuit to a server computing system for storage; and
sending, to a second computing device, an indication that the server computing system stores the token, wherein the indication is not sent via the server computing system, wherein, responsive to the indication, the second computing device is configured to retrieve the token using a public key of a second secure element circuit of the second computing device and to send the retrieved token from the second secure element circuit to the electronically-secured property to obtain access to the electronically-secured property.

17. The first computing device of claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise:
in response to sending the token to the server computing system, receiving a universal resource locator (URL) assigned by the server computing system to the token; and
including the URL in the indication sent to the second computing device, wherein the URL is usable to retrieve the token from the server computing system.

18. The first computing device of claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise:
prior to sending the token to the server computing sys

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Galdo Florian
• Martin Stephanie R
• Sierra Yannick L
• Krstic Ivan
• Volkert Christopher A
• Abdulrahiman Najeeb M
• Lerch Matthias
• Tackin Onur E
• Brogle Kyle C

Classifications

• H04L63/10 Primary

  for controlling access to devices or network resources · CPC title

• G06F21/335

  for accessing specific resources, e.g. using Kerberos tickets · CPC title

• H04L9/0894

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

• H04L9/3213

  using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos (network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807) · CPC title

• H04L9/3234

  involving additional secure or trusted devices, e.g. TPM, smartcard, USB or software token (network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using an additional device in a packet data network H04L63/0853) · CPC title