WO1997045783A1

WO1997045783A1 - Device for managing access rights

Info

Publication number: WO1997045783A1
Application number: PCT/FR1997/000910
Authority: WO
Inventors: Didier Texier
Original assignee: Didier Texier
Priority date: 1996-05-24
Filing date: 1997-05-23
Publication date: 1997-12-04
Also published as: FR2749091B1; FR2749091A1

Abstract

The invention discloses a device for managing access rights to at least one electronic system to prevent unauthorised use. The electronic system comprises access software recorded on first memory means (18, 20) of a central unit (10). The software is associated on a one-to-one basis with utilisation rights recorded on second memory means (24, 28). The device comprises an annex unit (22) for receiving the second memory means (24, 28) and interfaced with the central unit (10) to enable information exchange between the central unit (10) and the annex unit (22). At least one of the second memory means (24, 28) is constituted by a plane substrate (26) comprising a chip (28) and a plurality of conductive tracks (31) coupling the chip (28) to the central unit (10) by means of a set of conductors at least partially integral with the annex unit (22).

Description

DEVICE FOR MANAGING ACCESS RIGHTS

The present invention relates to a device for managing access rights to at least one electronic system against unauthorized use.

Such an electronic system may, for example, be a computer system in general, which may include software or software, the management of access rights consisting in prohibiting unauthorized use of these software or software, and in particular in prohibit unauthorized copying. The electronic system can also be constituted by an accessible network, for example by telephone line, of Internet or Intranet type of which one wants to control certain accesses, for example with toll, or when a distant site wants to check the regularity of a telepayment.

The electronic system can also be constituted by a decoding device produced in numerous copies and made available to a large audience for decoding encrypted information, for example television, access to this information being subject to the subscription of rights specific access.

These electronic systems, whether computer systems or decoding devices, will be designated by the continuation of the present description under the single term of software systems.

In the first example cited above, the generalization of the use of microcomputers, both in networks at the workplace and at home, has led to a concomitant generalization of the illegal duplication and use of software, thereby causing a significant shortfall for the developers, publishers and distributors of this software.

In the second example, the multiplication of coding or encryption systems implies an equal multiplication of decoding devices to allow a user to receive all types of information encrypted on his receiving device, these decoding devices then being all connected to the input of the final receiving device.

We have thus developed, for the first example, protection systems included in the software itself, or in their media, for example floppy disks, to make unauthorized copying impossible. The major drawback of such systems is that they generally prohibit the authorized user from even making a single backup copy of the software, which seriously penalizes this user in the event of a hardware or software problem.

As for the second example, no solution has yet been found, the user having to cascade as many decoding devices as necessary if he wishes to benefit from several types of encrypted information.

For obvious reasons of clarity and simplification, the following description will mainly be made with reference to computer systems, for the protection of software proper mainly intended for microcomputers.

For the protection of computer systems, we turned to hardware coding devices, consisting of a hardware key, a code or software installed on a read only memory being included in this key.

There are thus known from documents FR-A-2 550 638 and FR-A-2 618926, interface boxes constituting the hardware keys, to be arranged in series, for example between the central unit of the microcomputer and one of its peripheral equipment. The operating principle of these interface boxes is that they return a response code to an interrogation code sent periodically by the software associated with this box. In the absence of the correct response code, the central unit or the peripheral equipment is inhibited, which makes the software unusable without the interface box. These boxes are, in principle, transparent to the equipment with which they are in series.

In addition to their relative complexity, and therefore their high cost, these interface boxes only allow the use of a single software protected by such a box. When the user wishes to use another software, he must then either change the box, which involves tedious and damaging manipulations for the connection pins, or have a second box in series or in parallel with the first, which can pose congestion or interference problems between the codes received and emitted by the different boxes.

A solution to these problems has been provided by the documents US-A-4 652 990 and FR-A-2 646 940 which describe connection devices to be inserted on a connection cable between the central unit of the microcomputer and peripheral equipment. These connection devices provide electrical continuity between the pins with which they are provided for their connection, and they comprise connection supports capable of receiving by plug-in modules forming hardware coding keys. These devices, simpler than the previous ones, however require an additional cable, and they only allow the insertion of a very limited number of hardware coding keys.

Protection devices are also known which themselves constitute peripheral equipment, that is to say connected, for example, to an input / output port of the central unit of the microcomputer. These devices can consist of specific card readers, as in the known documents FR-A-2 523 745, FR-A-2 654 851 or FR-A-2 662 280, in which the software specific card is inserted. the user wishes to use. Such an arrangement implies that the user must have as many specific card readers as there are software protected by specific types of cards. Each reader occupying an input / output port, it must also have a classification device for these different types of cards, and it must handle these different cards when it goes from using software to that of another.

Document FR-A-2 622 319 provides a solution to this problem by providing a peripheral circuit device, connected to an input / output port of the central unit, and comprising several module connection locations each corresponding to a particular software. According to this document, part of the software to be protected is stored on a medium that can be read by conventional peripheral equipment of the microcomputer central unit, for example one or more floppy disks and / or the hard disk of the central unit, and another part of the software to be protected is stored physically on a hardware medium contained in one of these modules, this other part of software being unable be read by conventional means. Thus, the software to be protected is stored on two different media, the reading modes of which are different, so as to ensure that the part of software readable by conventional readers is unusable without the part of software stored on the included hardware medium. in the module connected to the peripheral device provided for this purpose.

The disadvantage of such an arrangement is that, in order to be effective, a large part of the software to be protected must be stored on the medium that cannot be read by conventional means, and that this medium must therefore be of large storage capacity, and therefore of high cost. , that all software protected by this process must have the same protection system, and that the number of locations in the peripheral device is limited.

The present invention is placed in this context and aims to provide a device for protecting at least one electronic system against unauthorized use, which is inexpensive to implement while providing a high degree of security, which can allow access to a large number of software or set-top boxes in a small footprint, and which can be integrated into a central unit or a single set-top box or be connected to them by requiring only a minimum number of connections.

To this end, the subject of the present invention is a device for managing access rights to at least one electronic system against unauthorized use, the system electronics including software access means recorded on the first storage means of a central unit capable of executing the software means, the latter being unequivocally associated with user rights recorded on second storage means. The device comprises an annex unit intended to receive the second storage means and connected to the central unit to allow the exchange of information between the central unit and the annex unit comprising the second storage means.

According to the invention, at least one of the second storage means consists of a flat substrate comprising a chip and a plurality of conductive tracks connecting the chip to electrical contact areas connected to the central unit by means of a set of conductors at least partially attached to the annex unit.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the set of conductors comprises a plurality of conductive pins integral with the annex unit, at least one of which is in contact with one of the electrical contact zones.

Advantageously, at least one of the contact zones is constituted by an opening or a notch made in the card and the inner or transverse wall of which is metallized.

The aforementioned opening or notch can be favorably provided with radial protrusions so as to ensure good quality of the electrical contact.

According to a preferred embodiment, the annex unit comprises means for holding the planar substrates in an inclined manner relative to the plane perpendicular to the pins, so as to ensure electrical contact between the pins and the contact areas of the second storage means.

In this embodiment, the holding means may include flexible materials arranged in the annex unit on either side of the flat substrates to force them to adopt an inclined position.

According to another embodiment, at least one of the contact zones is constituted by a metallized part of a side wall of the planar substrate. Advantageously, in this case, the conductive pins have sufficient elasticity to be applied to the metallized part.

Other objects, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will emerge more clearly from the following description of an exemplary embodiment given by way of illustration, with reference to the appended drawings in which:

- Figure 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a microcomputer incorporating a protection device according to the present invention;

- Figure 2 shows a schematic perspective view on a larger scale of the protection device fitted to the microcomputer of Figure 1;

- Figure 3 is a front view of the storage means containing the rights to use the software executed by the microcomputer of Figure 1; FIG. 4 is a front view on a larger scale of part of the storage means of FIG. 3 at the place of their connection with the device of FIG. 2, and - Figure 5 is a schematic exploded perspective view of the protection device fitted to the microcomputer of Figure 1.

Referring to Figure 1, there is shown a microcomputer, comprising a central unit 10 connected by cables to peripheral equipment, such as a keyboard 12 and a monitor 14. This central unit is intended to execute programs which can be stored on first storage means, consisting, for example, of floppy disks 16 or equivalent (compact disks known by the name of "CD-ROM"), capable of being inserted into at least one floppy disk drive 18, of the hard disk 20 fitted to the central unit 10, or to a RAM or read only memory (not shown) of the central unit.

The central unit 10 comprises (as shown in the

Figure 1) or is connected to an annex unit 22 intended to receive second storage means 24 containing rights of access or use of the software stored in the first storage means. These second storage means 24 each consist of a card formed of a planar substrate 26 on which is installed an integrated circuit 28 comprising a read only memory and / or a processor, here called a chip, the processor possibly comprising itself at minus a read only memory readable by the microprocessor (not shown) of the central unit 10, via connections 30 on the card 26, and, possibly, a specific response means to a general question asked by the central unit 10 to all the second storage means.

In accordance with the present invention, the connections are made by means of electrical contact zones connected to the chip 28 by means of conductive tracks 31, for example, printed on the substrate 24. According to one aspect of the invention, as illustrated here, these electrical contact zones are constituted by holes 30 made in the planar substrate and the inner or transverse wall of which is metallized. These holes 30 are intended to cooperate with conductive pins 32 of the annex unit 22.

As can be seen more clearly in FIGS. 2 and 5, the annex unit 22 comprises a frame 34 provided, for example, with a pivoting cover 36 and in which a drawer 38 is able to slide thanks to guide rails 40. The pins 32 extend parallel to the direction of the rails 40 and are connected, at the end opposite to that which points towards the cover, to a communication port, such as an input / output port of the microprocessor.

When the user wishes to use a particular software means, and the latter is stored on the floppy disk 16, on the hard disk 20 or in the RAM of the microcomputer, he launches the executable program corresponding to this software. The latter includes, in addition to its specific instructions, specific instructions for verifying the access or use rights granted to the user.

These particular instructions have the result of displaying on the screen of the monitor 14, a message inviting the user to insert his smart card 24 in the annex unit 22. To do this, the user flips the cover 36, which results in releasing the drawer 38, which can then be removed from the chassis manually, or automatically by motorized means or elastic means (not shown). The user thus has access to the end of the pins 32, on which he can thread the smart card 24. One could advantageously provide a polarization device, consisting, for example, of a non-symmetrical arrangement of the metallized holes 30 associated with a corresponding arrangement of pins 32, or, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, of a cut corner 42 of the smart card 24, cooperating with a rib 44 of corresponding shape formed at the inside the frame 34, so as to prevent the drawer 38 from closing if the card 24 does not have the correct orientation.

Provision may also be made for the metallized holes 30 to be provided with radial protrusions 46, so as to ensure good quality of the electrical contact between the pins 32 and the conductive tracks 31 formed on the surface of the card 24.

When the card 24 is in place on the pins 32 in the correct orientation, the user can then push the drawer 38 into the chassis 34 and close the cover 36. The specific verification instructions are then provided at the inputs of the chip 28 by the pins 32, the metallized holes 30 and the conductive tracks 31. The chip 28 then returns a return code, attesting to the presence of the card 24 in the annex unit 22. The corresponding software can then continue to be executed.

It should be noted that if the card 24 is already in place when the executable program is launched, the return code is directly returned by the chip 28 in a transparent manner for the user who then does not have to handle the card 24 .

Preferably, the annex unit includes means for holding the memory cards 24 at an angle to the plane perpendicular to the pins 32, so as to ensure contact permanent electric between the pins 32 and the second storage means 24, 28. These means can be constituted, for example, by the addition of a flexible plastic material on one of the walls of the frame 34 or of the drawer 38.

As shown more particularly in FIG. 5, in particular for an annex unit not integrated into the central unit, provision can be made for the drawer 38 in two parts, one part forming a tray 38 sliding in the frame 34, as explained above, this tray 38 being provided on its rear face with a first hinge 50 on which is hinged a cover 52, and with a second hinge 54 on which is hinged a support 56 for the pins 32 .

The support 56 comprises a connector 58 to which the ends of the pins 32 are electrically connected, the connector 58 being intended to cooperate with a corresponding connector 60 of the tray 38 by means of a layer of wires (not shown).

The internal face of the cover 52 is covered with a flexible material 62, for example an elastomer, preferably striated, and the bottom of the tank 38 is also covered with a flexible material 64, for example an elastomer, and also preferably, striated.

With such an arrangement, when the user wishes to have access to a particular software whose card is not yet disposed in the annex unit, he switches the cover 36 to release the drawer 38 and extract it from the chassis 34. When the drawer is in the extreme outward position, the user can then lift the cover 52 to gain access to the interior of the container 38. He can then pivot the support 56 around its axis 54, by pulling the free end of pins 32 upwards to have easier access to these pins on which he can then thread the card 24.

The user can then replace the pins 32 in the tray 38 and close the cover 52. The distance between the facing faces of the flexible materials 62 and 64, at rest, being less than the height of the cards 24, the flexible materials 62 and 64 then impose on the card 24 an inclined position relative to the pins 32, thus ensuring the good quality of the electrical contact between the pins 32 and the metallized holes 30 of the card 24. It then suffices to push the drawer 38 back into the chassis 34 , then close the cover 36 so that the access rights contained in the card 24 are taken into account.

We have therefore successfully produced, according to the present invention, a device for protecting software against unauthorized use, which is particularly simple to implement, and therefore inexpensive, since it only implements an associated chassis 34 a drawer 38 of relatively simple design and smart cards of current production. This device provides a high degree of security, since it is very difficult to copy the contents of the read-only memory of the integrated circuit 28. In addition, such a device can protect a large number of software in a small footprint, since it is possible to stack a large number of cards 24 on pins 32. This device can advantageously, as shown in Figure 1, be integrated in a central unit, or be an outdoor device easier to access and connected to the central unit, requiring only a minimum number of connections, a minimum footprint and a minimum weight.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the single embodiment which has been described, but it is on the contrary susceptible to receive numerous modifications which will appear to those skilled in the art.

Thus, for example, as indicated above, the chassis 34 and its drawer 38 could constitute peripheral equipment disposed outside of the central unit 10.

Likewise, the chassis 34 and its drawer 38 can be fitted with a device for decoding encrypted information, for example to equip a television receiver, each card 24 inserted in the drawer

38 corresponding to a type of decoding for which a user has acquired access rights.

Obviously, the expressions "smart card" and "memory card" have been used here indifferently, since there is no need to differentiate them from the invention. However, as soon as one considers that a memory card has only a read only memory, only four pins 32 will be necessary for the connection to the microcomputer. If we consider that a smart card has a microprocessor integrated on the substrate, then at least six pins 32 may prove to be necessary. The various cards can also be connected in parallel on the same pins, for example in the manner of a token network or else to pins specific to each card, an additional management processor then being required at the bottom of the drawer. The number of useful pins 32 therefore in no way modifies the scope of the invention.

It is also obvious that the contact zones on the substrates can be formed by notches, or even by metallized parts on a side wall of the substrate. In this case, it is advantageous that the conductive pins 32 have a sufficient elasticity to be applied to the metallized part of the electrical contact zones.

In addition, the conductive pins 32 can be constituted by a sheet of bare parallel conductors facing the contact zones.

* * *

Claims

1 - Device for managing access rights to at least one electronic system against unauthorized use, said electronic system including software access means recorded on first storage means (18, 20) of a central unit (10) being able to execute said software means, said software means being unequivocally associated with user rights recorded on second storage means (24, 28), the device comprising an annex unit (22) intended to receive the said second storage means (24, 28) and connected to the central unit (10) to allow the exchange of information between the central unit (10) and the said annex unit (22) comprising the said second means storage device (24, 28), characterized in that at least one of said second storage means (24, 28) consists of a flat substrate (26) comprising a chip (28) and a plurality of conductive tracks (31 ) relian t said chip (28) to electrical contact zones connected to said central unit (10) by means of a set of conductors at least partially secured to said additional unit (22).

2 - Management device according to claim 1, characterized in that said set of conductors comprises a plurality of conductive pins (32) integral with said annex unit (22), at least one of which is in contact with one of said zones electrical contact.

3 - Management device according to claim 2, characterized in that at least one of said contact areas is constituted by an opening or a notch (30) formed in said card (24) and the inner or transverse wall of which is metallized.

4 - Management device according to claim 3, characterized in that said opening or notch (30) is provided with radial protrusions (46) so as to ensure good quality of the electrical contact.

5 - Management device according to any one of claims 3 or 4, characterized in that said additional unit (22) comprises means (62, 64) for holding said flat substrate (24) in an inclined manner relative to the plane perpendicular to said pins (32), so as to ensure good electrical contact between said pins (32) and said contact areas of said second storage means (24, 28).

6 - Management device according to claim 5, characterized in that the holding means (62, 64) comprise flexible materials (62, 64) disposed in the annex unit (22), on either side of said flat substrates (24), to force them to adopt an inclined position.

7 - Management device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that at least one of said contact areas is constituted by a metallized part of a side wall of said planar substrate (24).

8 - Management device according to claim 7, characterized in that said conductive pins (32) have sufficient elasticity to be applied to said metallized part. 9 - Management device according to claim 1 or 7, characterized in that said set of conductors is constituted by a sheet of parallel conductors.