Secured Mobile Device Software Update over IP Networks

Abstract

One of the major difficulties in managing mobile device maintenance is to perform software updates over the open network. Mobile devices are demanding more complex operation software. The manufacturer may need for some reason to update the operation software or even add new functionalities from time to time. The manufacturer may also want to sell selectively a new application to some interested mobile device owners. This operation could be performed over the open network. However both device owner and manufacturer should develop a mutual authentication and secured software download. The manufacturer would not like to reveal the software code for security and commercial reasons, at the same time the owner would like to be sure that the manufacturer is the one who is offering the code to be able to let the manufacturer take the responsibility for later device operation. This is a very old and common problem equivalent to software Intellectual Property Right (IPR) protection. A particular software download scenario is presented for mobile device environment and a secured protocol scenario is proposed. The solution includes mainly secret-key mechanisms together with special hardware architecture, which gives the whole process secure and less complex implementation in a mobile environment with low computational power requirements.