Scheme for transferring and authenticating data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12362933-B2
Application number	US-202418670151-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 21, 2024
Priority date	Jul 13, 2021
Publication date	Jul 15, 2025
Grant date	Jul 15, 2025

Abstract

Various techniques related to authenticating and verifying the integrity of data received by a computer system from an external source (such as a sensor) are disclosed. Hardware circuits are disclosed that, along with the computer processor, allow for error-checking and authentication of data received by the computer system. For instance, the hardware circuits may generate a separate authentication code that can be compared to the authentication code in the data itself to determine whether or not the message is authentic and whether or not there is an error in the data. The disclosed techniques reduce the processing requirements of a computer system and can be implemented using simple hardware circuit designs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a computer system, a message having sensor data and a first message authentication code, wherein the first message authentication code is generated at a source generating the sensor data;
storing the message in a memory system of the computer system;
retrieving, by processing circuitry in the computer system, the sensor data in the message from the memory system;
generating, at the processing circuitry, a second message authentication code from the sensor data in the message retrieved from the memory system, wherein the second message authentication code is generated without knowledge of the first message authentication code;
inverting, at the processing circuitry, the second message authentication code;
transmitting, by the processing circuitry, the inverted second message authentication code to at least one processor circuit in the computer system; and
determining, at the at least one processor circuit in the computer system, an authenticity of the message and an error status of the sensor data based on a comparison of the second message authentication code to the first message authentication code that takes into account the inversion of the second message authentication code.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one processor circuit in the computer system determines the message is authentic when the comparison of the second message authentication code to the first message authentication code, taking into account the inversion, indicates that the second message authentication code and the first message authentication code match.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one processor circuit in the computer system determines the message is not authentic when the comparison of the second message authentication code to the first message authentication code, taking into account the inversion, indicates a difference between the second message authentication code and the first message authentication code.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the message is received, at the computer system, from optical sensing circuitry.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the message is received, at the computer system, from a wearable device implemented for augmented reality.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the message includes a message identifier and a message counter in addition to the data, and wherein the first message authentication code is generated from the data, the message identifier, and the message counter.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the determination, at the at least one processor circuit in the computer system, includes differentiating the second message authentication code from the first message authentication code based on the inversion of the second message authentication code.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising removing the data from the memory system in response to determining that the message is not authentic or there is an error in the data.

9. A system comprising:
a computer processor circuit, wherein the computer processor circuit is configured to receive a message from a source generating sensor data, the message having the sensor data and a first message authentication code, wherein the first message authentication code is generated at the source from the sensor data;
a memory system configured to store the message received by the computer processor circuit; and
functional circuitry configured to retrieve the message from the memory system, generate a second message authentication code from the sensor data in the message retrieved from the memory system without knowledge of the first message authentication code, invert the second message authentication code, and transmit the inverted second message authentication code to the computer processor circuit;
wherein the computer processor circuit is configured to determine an authenticity of the message and an error status of the sensor data based on a comparison of the second message authentication code to the first message authentication code that takes into account the inversion of the second message authentication code.

10. The system as recited in claim 9 wherein the computer processor circuit is configured to receive the message from the source over a wired interface between the computer processor circuit and the source.

11. The system as recited in claim 9 wherein the computer processor circuit is configured to ignore the data in the message in response to a determination that the message is not authentic or there is an error in the data.

12. The system as recited in claim 9 wherein the message is received, at the computer processor circuit, as a stream of data, and wherein the functional circuitry is configured to retrieve the message from the memory system as the stream of data is being stored in the memory system.

13. The system as recited in claim 9 wherein the functional circuitry is configured to receive the message from the source and transmit the message without processing of the message.

14. The system as recited in claim 9 wherein the memory system comprises a dynamic memory system.

15. A method comprising:
receiving, at functional circuitry in a computer system, a message from sensing circuitry, the message having sensor data, a message counter, and a first message authentication code, wherein the first message authentication code is generated by the sensing circuitry from the sensor data and the message counter;
transmitting, by the functional circuitry, the message to at least one processor circuit in the computer system;
storing, by the at least one processor circuit, the message in a memory system of the computer system;
retrieving, by the functional circuitry, the sensor data and the message counter from the memory system;
generating, at the functional circuitry, a second message authentication code from the sensor data and the message counter retrieved from the memory system, wherein the second message authentication code is generated without knowledge of the first message authentication code;
inverting, at the functional circuitry, the second message authentication code;
transmitting, by the functional circuitry, the inverted second message authentication code to the at least one processor circuit; and
determining, at the at least one processor circuit, an authenticity of the message and an error status of the sensor data based on a comparison of the second message authentication code to the first message authentication code that takes into account the inversion of the second message authentication code.

16. The method as recited in claim 15 wherein the sensing circuitry includes optical sensing circuitry.

17. The method as recited in claim 15 wherein the message is received, at the functional circuitry, from a wearable device implemented for augmented reality.

18. The method as recited in claim 15 further comprising determining, at the at least one processor circuit, a uniqueness of the message based on the message counter.

19. The method as recited in claim 15 further comprising:
storing the sensor data at the functional circuitry as received sensor data when the message is received from the sensing circuitry; and
comparing, at the functional circuitry, the sensor data in the message retrieved from the memory system to the received sensor data to determine whether or not the sensor data retrieved from the memory system is identical to the received sensor data.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Baker Paul A
• Murphy Michael W
• Colosky Mark P
• Zmuda James E
• Lee Jangwon
• Gotze Kevin C
• Bielawski Peter Louis

Classifications

• H04L2209/805

  Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor · CPC title

• H04L9/3242

  involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC · CPC title

• H04L9/32 Primary

  including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system {or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials} · CPC title

• H04L9/0643 Primary

  Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC · CPC title