Transmission of authentication keys

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12418795-B2
Application number	US-202218051529-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2022
Priority date	Nov 1, 2022
Publication date	Sep 16, 2025
Grant date	Sep 16, 2025

Abstract

A vehicle system includes a first control module, a plurality of second control modules, and a vehicle network. The vehicle network communicatively couples the first control module and the second control modules. The first control module is programmed to generate an update command including a plurality of authentication keys and transmit the update command over the vehicle network. The update command is functionally addressed to be receivable by the second control modules. Each second control module is programmed to receive a configuration file; in response to receiving the update command, identify the authentication keys in the update command that are associated with that second control module based on the configuration file; and update with the identified authentication keys.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle system comprising:
a first control module;
a plurality of second control modules; and
a vehicle network, the vehicle network communicatively coupling the first control module and the second control modules;
wherein the first control module is programmed to:
generate an update command including a plurality of authentication keys; and
transmit the update command over the vehicle network, wherein the update command is functionally addressed to be receivable by the second control modules without identifying specific second control modules as recipients; and

wherein each second control module is programmed to:
receive a respective configuration file;
in response to receiving the update command, identify a subset of the plurality of authentication keys in the update command that are associated with that second control module based on the respective configuration file; and
update with the identified subset of the plurality of authentication keys.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the configuration files indicate the authentication keys that are associated with the respective second control modules.

3. The vehicle system of claim 2 , wherein each configuration file indicates the authentication keys that are associated with the respective second control module and does not indicate the authentication keys that are associated with others of the second control modules.

4. The vehicle system of claim 2 , wherein the configuration files list key identifiers for the authentication keys that are associated with the respective second control modules.

5. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the update command lacks an association between the authentication keys and the second control modules.

6. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein more than one of the second control modules are associated with one of the authentication keys.

7. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the first control module is further programmed to receive a transmission command, and transmit the update command in response to receiving the transmission command.

8. The vehicle system of claim 7 , wherein the first control module is further programmed to validate the transmission command, and refrain from transmitting the update command until the transmission command is validated.

9. The vehicle system of claim 7 , wherein the configuration files are second configuration files, the first control module is further programmed to receive a first configuration file, and after receiving the first configuration file, receive the transmission command.

10. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the authentication keys in the update command are encrypted.

11. The vehicle system of claim 10 , wherein the authentication keys in the update command are differently encrypted from each other.

12. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the update command is receivable by a third control module that is not associated with any of the authentication keys in the update command.

13. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the first control module is further programmed to receive a plurality of verifications indicating that the second control modules received the update command.

14. The vehicle system of claim 13 , wherein the first control module is further programmed to, upon failing to receive at least one of the verifications from at least one of the second control modules, retransmit the update command over the vehicle network.

15. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the authentication keys are symmetric encryption keys.

16. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein each second control module is programmed to, in response to receiving the update command, transmit a verification to the first control module.

17. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the second control modules are programmed to encrypt messages with the authentication keys.

18. The vehicle system of claim 17 , wherein a first key of the authentication keys is associated with a group of the second control modules, and each second control module in the group is programmed to encrypt messages to others of the second control modules in the group with the first key.

19. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein each configuration file indicates at least one group of the second control modules to which the respective second control module belongs, and the second control modules in each group are associated with one of the authentication keys.

20. A method comprising:
receiving a configuration file by a second control module;
generating an update command including a plurality of authentication keys by a first control module;
transmitting the update command over a vehicle network by the first control module, wherein the update command is functionally addressed to be receivable by a plurality of control modules including the second control module without identifying specific second control modules as recipients;
in response to receiving the update command, identifying a subset of the plurality of authentication keys in the update command that are associated with that second control module based on the configuration file by the second control module; and
updating with the identified subset of the plurality of authentication keys by the second control module.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Kajuluri Venkata Kishore
• Nelson Jacob David
• Smyth Cameron

Classifications

• H04W12/0471 Primary

  Key exchange · CPC title

• G06F8/65

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

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• H04W12/069 Primary

  using certificates or pre-shared keys · CPC title

• H04L2209/84

  Vehicles · CPC title