Method for securing an electronic document

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9832182-B2
Application number	US-201214365588-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 13, 2012
Priority date	Dec 14, 2011
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

The object of this invention is a method for securing an electronic document. In particular, this invention relates to a method that prevents the forging of documents in which an electronic chip is incorporated. To that end, the invention proposes a method in which the data on the document medium are associated with a fingerprint of the document, so as to make them inseparable. That fingerprint is determined on the basis of measurable physical units of the electronic chip or the medium. Thus, the invention allows the combination of the physical protection of the document and the protection of the chip so as to reinforce the security of said documents.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for securing an electronic document in which an electronic chip is incorporated in a medium of said document, wherein said method comprises the following steps:
enrollment of the electronic document by:
association of a plurality of measurable physical characteristics of the electronic chip or the medium of the electronic document with the electronic document;
determination of a value for each said measurable physical characteristic;
generation of at least one secret key K on the basis of the following equation: K=f(c) where f is a physically unclonable function (PUF) and c is the measured value for at least one of said measurable physical characteristics;
determination of a signature of a plurality of control data using said at least one secret key K thereby producing a plurality of associations of measurable physical characteristics and control data, and
storage of the signature of each of said plurality of control data as verification signatures associated with said electronic document in a verification server to be used in a subsequent step during a verification step of the authenticity of the medium and the chip of the electronic document; and

the verification step comprises the following steps:
activation of the electronic chip of the document by a control terminal placed between said document and the verification server;
determination of at least one measurable physical characteristic of the electronic chip or the medium of the electronic document selected from said plurality of measurable physical characteristics associated with said electronic document;
determination of a value for said measurable physical characteristic;
generation of a secret key K′ on the basis of the following equation: K′=f(c) where f is a physically unclonable function (PUF) and c is the measured value for said measurable physical characteristic;
selecting a control data for which a verification signature obtained by signing with a secret key K exists in the storage of the verification server;
signing the selected control data using said generated secret key K′;
comparison of the signed control data with the verification signature stored in the server;
if the two signatures match, the document is considered to be authentic;
if they do not match, the medium or the electronic chip are considered to be altered or modified.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measurable value is a physical characteristic:
of the silicon layer of the chip or variations of the manufacturing process of said chip,
of an antenna of the chip
of the medium of the document, or
of a printing ink of the document.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the type and number of values of physical unit to measure are defined by default or randomly.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a control data is:
a piece of data stated on the medium of the document such as a surname, date of birth, given name, address, photograph, security pattern, security seal or hologram, or
a piece of data stored in a memory of the electronic chip such as a biometric print, surname, given name, date of birth, address or photograph.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the type and number of control data to sign are defined by default or randomly.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each control data is associated with a unique measureable physical unit, each control data being thus signed with a key that is specific to the control data.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the verification step comprises a challenge and response mechanism wherein the server sends a challenge based on a physical unit to measure and in response, receives from the control terminal or the chip a signature with a key generated on the basis of the challenge.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the medium is paper or polycarbonate.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic chip of the document is a contact type or contactless chip.

10. A system for securing an electronic document having an electronic chip incorporated in a medium, the system comprising:
a trusted verification server;
a measurement module operable to secure the electronic document by:
association of a plurality of measurable physical characteristics of the electronic chip or the medium of the document with the electronic document;
measurement of said plurality of measurable characteristics;
generation of at least one secret key K on the basis of the following equation: K=f(c) where f is the PUF function and c is the measurement of the physical characteristics;
signing a plurality of control data, each of which is on the medium or stored in the chip, with said at least one secret key K thereby producing a plurality of verification signatures of control data associated with said electronic document; and
transmission of the verification signatures of the control data to the verification server;

the verification server operable to store the verification signatures to be used in a subsequent step during a verification step of the authenticity of the medium and the chip of the document; and
a control terminal placed between the electronic document and the verification terminal, the control terminal operable to activate the electronic chip of the document determination of at least one measurable characteristic of the physical unit of the electronic chip or the medium of the document selected from said plurality of measurable physical characteristics associated with said electronic document,
operable to measure said selected characteristic, operable to generate a secret key K′ on the basis of the following equation: K′=f(c) where f is the PUF function and c is the measurement of for said measurable physical characteristic;
operable to select a control data for which a verification signature obtained by signing with a secret key K exists in the storage of the verification server;

operable to sign the selected control data, which is on the medium or stored in the chip, with the secret key K′;
comparison of the signed control data with the verification signature stored in the server;
if the two signatures match, the document is considered to be authentic; if they do not match, the medium or the electronic chip are considered to be altered or modified.

11. The system for securing an electronic document of claim 10 , wherein the measurable value is a physical characteristic:
of the silicon layer of the chip or variations of the manufacturing process of said chip,
of an antenna of the chip
of the medium of the document, or
of a printing ink of the document.

12. The system for securing an electronic document of claim 10 wherein the type and number of values of physical unit to measure are defined by default or randomly.

13. The system for securing an electronic document of claim 10 wherein a control data is:
a piece of data stated on the medium of the document such as a surname, date of birth, given name, address, photograph, security pattern, security seal or hologram, or
a piece of data stored in a memory of the electronic chip such as a biometric print, surname, given name, date of birth, address or photograph.

14. The system for securing an electronic document of claim 10 wherein the type and number of control data to sign are defined by default or randomly.

15. The system for securing an electronic document of claim 10 wherein each control data is associated with a unique measureable physical unit, each control data being thus signed with a key that is specific to the control data

Assignees

• Gemalto Sa

Inventors

• Rouchouze Bruno
• Barral Claude
• Guerassimo Michael

Classifications

• H04L63/0807 Primary

  using tickets, e.g. Kerberos (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213) · CPC title

• G07D7/004

  using digital security elements, e.g. information coded on a magnetic thread or strip · CPC title

• G07D7/01

  Testing electronic circuits therein · CPC title

• G07D7/0032 Primary

  using holograms · CPC title

• G07D7/2033

  Matching unique patterns, i.e. patterns that are unique to each individual paper · CPC title