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US5708712A Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Vehicle security device with electronic use authorization coding

Assignee: Mercedes-Benz AG
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Filing: 1995-04-03
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Granted: 1998-01-13
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Expires: 2015-04-03
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Abstract

Abstract The invention provides a vehicle security device utilizing a rapid encryption method which operates on the basis of a "one-way function" and which requires storage in the vehicle of at most one item of secret coded information in a single piece of equipment, out of any desired number of pieces of equipment involved in vehicle security. In all such pieces of equipment only the one-way function values corresponding to inverse images stored in a key unit need to be present, the reading out of the said one-way function values making unauthorized manufacture of a copied key impossible. Security against interception and storage of information transmitted at the key end in order to produce copied keys is ensured by including an item of random information, transmitted at the vehicle end, in this authentication information.

Inventors

  • 👤 Horst Brinkmeyer
  • 👤 Michael Daiss
  • 👤 Gunter Schwegler
  • 👤 Bertolt Kruger

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-10-31 18:52
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L9/00; H04L9/12; B; B60; B60R; B60R25/00; B60R25/01; B60R25/04; G; G07; G07C; G07C9/00; G07C9/00174; G07C9/00309; H04L9/32; H04L9/3236; H04L9/3239; H04L9/3271; G07C2009/00388; G07C2009/00396; G07C2009/0042; G07C2009/00476; G07C2009/005; G07C2009/00753; G07C2009/00769; G07C2009/00785; H04L2209/00; H04L2209/84

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 15
Claim 1
Independent Claim 221 words
Vehicle security device having an electronic use-authorization coding arrangement comprising: a user-end key unit for receiving an item of random information, and for subsequently transmitting an item of user code information which is dependent thereon; a vehicle-end apparatus for transmitting said item of random information, for subsequently receiving a transmitted item of user code information, and for determining an item of actual authorization information which is dependent on the item of user code information; and means for comparing said item of actual authorization information with an item of desired authorization information present at the vehicle unit, and for generating an item of use-enabling information based on a result of said comparing, wherein: successively transmitted items of user code information contain changing inverse images calculated by means of a one-way function, which inverse images are logic linked in coded form to the item of random information; the vehicle end apparatus includes means for extracting inverse image information from an item of received user code information; the desired authorization information is in each case a one-way function value of the inverse image contained in an associated item of user code information; and determination of the actual authorization information from the received user code information includes the formation of a one-way function value of the inverse image contained in the received user code information.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 221 words
Vehicle security device having an electronic use-authorization coding arrangement comprising: a user-end key unit for receiving an item of random information, and for subsequently transmitting an item of user code information which is dependent thereon; a vehicle-end apparatus for transmitting said item of random information, for subsequently receiving a transmitted item of user code information, and for determining an item of actual authorization information which is dependent on the item of user code information; and means for comparing said item of actual authorization information with an item of desired authorization information present at the vehicle unit, and for generating an item of use-enabling information based on a result of said comparing, wherein: successively transmitted items of user code information contain changing inverse images calculated by means of a one-way function, which inverse images are logic linked in coded form to the item of random information; the vehicle end apparatus includes means for extracting inverse image information from an item of received user code information; the desired authorization information is in each case a one-way function value of the inverse image contained in an associated item of user code information; and determination of the actual authorization information from the received user code information includes the formation of a one-way function value of the inverse image contained in the received user code information.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 74 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein: successively transmitted inverse images constitute a sequence generated from repeated application of the one-way function, said inverse images being used in reverse order relative to a sequence in which they were generated; and the desired authorization information consists in each case of an inverse image which was transmitted with the user code information during a last preceding successful use-authorization testing process using a particular key unit.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 61 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 2 wherein selected elements of said sequence are stored as samples, and a subsequence between two samples is stored, in an inverse image memory of the key unit, another subsequence being generated and stored in place of a previous one, at least when a last remaining inverse image of the previous subsequence has been transmitted.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 68 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 2 wherein an item of new actual authorization information is determined as a one-way function value of a next preceding actual authorization information after a negative result of a comparison of actual authorization information and desired authorization information, said item of new actual authorization information being compared in each case with the desired authorization information for a prescribed maximum number of repetitions.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 75 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 2 further comprising replacement key units which can be used successively in place of a previous key unit, inverse images of one replacement key unit forming a subsequence, which directly precedes an inverse image subsequence of the preceding key unit, out of an entire sequence which is generated by repeated calculation of one-way function values starting from a starting value which is stored centrally on a key number-specific basis.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 18 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein a cryptographic hash function is used as a one-way function.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 15 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 6 wherein said hash function is the RIPEMD function.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 59 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of vehicle-end pieces of equipment are arranged in parallel to determine the respective actual authorization information from an item of received user code information, to compare the actual authorization information with the desired authorization information, and to generate, as a function of the comparison, an item of use-enabling information.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 25 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein a locking control device of the vehicle forms a vehicle-end piece of equipment of the security device.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 61 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein: respective transmitted user code information contains an item of vehicle-specific and an item of key-specific identification information; and the identification information of an item of received user code information can be evaluated in advance in a vehicle-end piece of equipment, the use-authorization testing process being aborted after non-authorizing transmitted identification data are detected.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 85 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein: a plurality of authorizing, user-end key units are provided for a vehicle, which key units transmit different inverse image sequences; each item of transmitted user code information contains an item of key identification information; and an item of specific desired authorization information is stored in, and readable out of, a memory, which can be addressed with the aid of the key identification information, in each vehicle-end piece of equipment involved in the process for each key unit.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 58 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein the means for extracting the inverse image information from an item of received user code information, means for producing an item of random information, a transmitter, and a receiver are arranged at the vehicle end in a single piece of equipment, which has data-exchanging connections with other pieces of equipment.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim 92 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 1 wherein: an item of secret information is stored in each key unit and in a selected piece of equipment; and inverse image information is logic linked in coded form to the random information using the relation m.sub.i XOR H(RND XOR g XOR i') m i being an ith item of inverse image information, RND being an item of random information, g being a stored item of secret information, H being a hash function, and i' being a counter value which changes for each authentication attempt.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim 60 words
Vehicle security device according to claim 13 wherein in each case a new item of random information is formed using the relation RND.sub.n =H(RND.sub.a XOR g XOR m.sub.i+1) wherein RND n is a current item of random information, RND a is a next preceding item of random information, and m i+1 is a next preceding item of inverse image information.

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 2001-01-12 2001-07-14 2002-01-13 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 2005-01-12 2005-07-14 2006-01-13 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2009-01-12 2009-07-14 2010-01-13 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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