Application of embedded security modules in the field of copyright protection of electronic products

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Application of embedded security modules in the field of copyright protection of electronic products [Copy link]

Abstract: This paper introduces a copyright protection method for the hardware design of electronic products. It uses a special hardware security chip to embed into the product design. Through the methods of key authentication and software transplantation, the hardware design of electronic products is anti-counterfeited, the copyright protection of embedded software is realized, and the sales of hardware design copyright is measured.
Keywords: SMAKEY ESAM key authentication software transplantation embedded application software copyright protection

I. Introduction
In the fiercely competitive electronic and communication product industry, many companies probably have such an experience. The products they have painstakingly designed are analyzed by competitors soon after they are put on the market. From hardware to software, they are cloned intact and put on the market with a different shell, and they become their own competitors. Some companies also commission manufacturers to produce a large number of identical products and put them on the market with a different brand. This not only disrupts the market order, but also seriously damages the interests of product designers. There are also some professional single-chip microcomputer companies that openly help others crack the secrets of various single-chip microcomputers as a way to generate income in addition to their main business. With the increasingly fierce competition in the industry, how to protect their own product design solutions to increase the market share of products and how to have an ideal and quantifiable measurement standard when transferring product technology have become increasingly concerned issues for many companies and product designers.
In the past two years, with the gradual entry of PDA, handheld computers, set-top boxes and other information terminals into people's lives, embedded operating systems have become as well-known as Windows. With the rapid development of integrated circuit chip technology, the electronic product design industry has become more and more like the computer industry. The hardware solutions of many products have become a kind of public information. The core technology of product designers is actually concentrated in embedded application software. Today, as hardware technology gradually matures and becomes public, how to protect product design and product copyright has actually transformed into the protection of embedded application software.
There are many ways to protect the copyright of hardware design. We will introduce a very flexible method below: embed a special security chip in the product design, and the application software controls the program flow by authenticating with the hardware chip key, and protect the embedded software by putting the part of the microcontroller main program into the ESAM for execution. The extremely high security characteristics and rich security functions of the ESAM chip ensure the high security of this solution.
The following is an introduction to the chip and the solutions based on it.
2. Introduction to ESAM (see previous article)
3. Software protection principle
1. Random number authentication
In the field of data security, the DES (Data Encryption Standard) algorithm is a widely used
public data encryption algorithm. It adopts a symmetric key mechanism, that is, the encryption key and the decryption key are the same, and
the security of the data depends on the security of the key. ESAM mainly adopts random number theory, uses the DES algorithm to calculate the authentication code, and compares the chip's internal key with the external authentication key by comparing the authentication code, so as to achieve the purpose of judgment and authentication.
ESAM usually presets relevant keys and key data internally, has security registers internally, and data files usually have confidentiality permissions. Only through the corresponding key authentication can the security permissions of the corresponding data files be achieved, and the data files can be read and written. The industry usually calls this process external authentication.
For example, if the read and write permissions of a data file are 33 (the security status register is 4 bits, and the security pointer is 00-FF), the corresponding external authentication key is 12345678, and the subsequent state can be defined as 33. The initial state of the security status register is the lowest 00. When the external authentication command is executed, if the external authentication is passed, the security status register will reach the 33 state, and the data file can be read and written.
During the authentication process, the channel between ESAM and the external device only transmits random numbers and authentication codes, ensuring that the data is non-repeatable and difficult to track, so that the outside world cannot obtain any key information, and the attempt to eavesdrop on the key through the channel is meaningless.
2. Software transplantation and SMAKEY internal execution
SMAKEY provides an internal software platform for users to develop subroutines for internal execution in ESAM. Features of the internal system software:
On-chip operating system (COS) for communication, files, storage, and security management
Users can create private files by themselves
Support user program download
Built-in interpreter to interpret and execute user programs
Support 255 subroutines, each with a maximum of 255 lines
Support the input of 4 parameters and return the operation results
Features of development tools:
Provide dedicated development instruction sets: support addition, multiplication, division, AND, XOR, NOT, assignment, jump, string processing and other operations
Provide dedicated development tools: support program editing, compilation, debugging, and can also generate executable code
Provide dedicated distribution tools: users can quickly produce in batches
Through the operation of software code inside SMAKEY, illegal users are prevented from directly copying and analyzing the software.
IV. Target applications of SMAKEY
1. Product copyright protection
In the case where hardware design is easy to copy, the method of installing a specific security chip ESAM can prevent the software from being copied and used normally, making the calculation and authentication of ESAM a part of the application software process, thereby achieving the purpose of preventing piracy.
2. Production quantity control
In the case of separation of interests between R&D companies and manufacturers, in order to prevent the product from being produced extra by the manufacturer for free during the production process, the use of ESAM can control the production quantity of the manufacturer, or use ESAM to collect copyright fees.
3. The basis for technical support and after-sales service
ESAM can be used to store key product information such as the serial number or version number of the product. The product can be provided with online services or online upgrades of application software based on this information, and it can also be used as the basis for providing related technical services.


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