DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claims 1-10 are objected to because of the following informalities: Acronyms UICC, ECC, DH, and ECDH are used in the claims but they are not defined. All acronyms should be defined prior to their use in the claims. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caserta et al., (EP 4071642 A1) hereinafter referred to as Caserta in view of Bradley et al., (WO 2019068731 A1) hereinafter referred to as Bradley.
Regarding Claim 1, Caserta discloses A method for generating, in a UICC, a 5G subscriber concealed identifier, SUCI, for a 5G mobile communication network, the method comprising the steps executed in a processing entity comprised in the UICC: (1) generation of a public/private key pair or an ECC public/private key pair; [paragraph 0037, generating an ephemeral key pair comprising an ephemeral private key and ephemeral public key]
(2) DH or ECDH derivation of an Ephemeral shared key from the public/private key pair or ECC public/private key pair; [paragraph 0037, generating a Shared secret key performing a second scalar multiplication of the Ephemeral Private key by a server public key]
(4) concealment of at least a part of a subscriber permanent identifier, SUPI, with the generated symmetric key to compute the SUCI, [paragraph 0037, using said shared secret key to derive keys to encrypt the subscription identifier, which is to be sent to said server as concealed subscription identifier as response of said identity retrieve command, said scalar multiplication being performed iteratively performing and iteration comprising a set of operations for each bit of the Ephemeral Private key]
wherein steps (1), (2) being triggered by occurrence of a deterministic event at the UICC, [paragraph 0037, performing an interruptible calculation of said first and second scalar multiplication during the execution time of given periodic commands, in particular APDU STATUS commands, sent by the mobile equipment to the card, storing a respective state of completion of said calculation]
Caserta does not explicitly teach (3) derivation of a symmetric encryption key from the Ephemeral shared key; and further comprising: storing the generated public/private key pair or ECC public/private key pair and Ephemeral shared key to a key memory provided in the UICC; and steps (3), (4) being triggered by receipt of a the GET IDENTITY command at the UICC subsequent to steps (1), (2).
Bradley teaches (3) derivation of a symmetric encryption key from the Ephemeral shared key; [page 6, lines 7-11, The ephemeral private key is sent to a crypto processor 31 of the security element 13. The crypto processor 31 also receives as another input the public key of the home network (HN Public Key). The crypto processor 31 generates a key called ephemeral symmetric key that is transmitted to a symmetric encryption module 32 receiving also the SUPI of the security element 13]
and further comprising: storing the generated public/private key pair or ECC public/private key pair and Ephemeral shared key to a key memory provided in the UICC; [page 6, lines 13-14, The SUCI and the ephemeral public key are then stored in a file or memory of the security element 13]
and steps (3), (4) being triggered by receipt of a the GET IDENTITY command at the UICC subsequent to steps (1), (2). [Figure 1, element 16, Identity Request]
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Bradley with the disclosure of Caserta. The motivation or suggestion would have been to speed up the time to calculate the SUCI. (page 2, lines 11-23)
Regarding Claim 2, Caserta discloses further comprising the step: along with (3) derivation of the symmetric encryption key: (3.1) generation of an initial counter block, ICB; or/and (3.2) generation of a Message Authentication Code, MAC, key; and in case of (3.2), (5) triggered by receipt of the GET IDENTITY command, generation of a Message Authentication Code, MAC, tag value with the MAC key. [paragraph 0025, use of the shared secret ShS to derive by means of a Key Derivation Function KDF, the keys used to encrypt (CCM, counter with cipher block chaining message authentication code) the subscriber identifier]
Regarding Claim 3, Caserta discloses wherein in step (1.1), (1.2) multiple public/private key pairs or ECC public/private key pairs and Ephemeral shared keys are generated and stored to the key memory of the UICC. [paragraph 0037, storing the corresponding values of ephemeral private key, ephemeral public key and shared secret in a table in a memory, in particular a flash memory, of the integrated circuit card at the user equipment]
Regarding Claim 4, Caserta discloses wherein the deterministic event is established as: consumption of a generated SUCI in an AUTHENTICATE command processed in the UICC subsequent to the SUCI generation. [paragraph 0082, Then the operator sends the Authenticate challenge to the card]
Regarding Claim 5, Caserta discloses wherein the deterministic event is established as: after an executed SUCI generation in the UICC, registering that one public/private key pair or ECC public/private key pair and Ephemeral shared key was consumed for generating the SUCI, the registered consumption of the public/private key pair or ECC public/private key pair and Ephemeral shared key acting as a trigger to generate a new public/private key pair or ECC public/private key pair and Ephemeral shared key and store the public/private key pair or ECC public/private key pair and Ephemeral shared key to the key memory. [paragraph 0091, the private key ephPrK is "good" for all profiles, but once it is used for one it is better not to use it for other profiles for security] [paragraph 0092, Therefore, during pre-computation of shared secret ShS values, it is better to compute them in different slots]
Regarding Claim 6, Caserta discloses wherein the deterministic event is established as: presence of no or an insufficient number of public/private key pairs or ECC public/private key pairs and Ephemeral shared keys in the key memory. [Table 4 and paragraph 0094, In the first column is the key slot indicating the record in the memory 12a, in the second the private key EphKeyQ[i].epPrK queue completion status (the X indicates the completion of the calculation, four X means complete), in the third the public key EphKeyQ[i].ephPuk queue completion status, in the fourth the shared secret ShS for profile 1, Pl, completion status, in the fifth shared secret queue ShSQ for profile n (es. n=2, Pn=P2) completion status, while the sixth column indicates if the data in the corresponding key slot is used or not (Y/N), i. e., used in the concealing of a subscriber identifier Pl for a given profile. es. P1] [paragraph 0104, Additionally, if no token is nearly finished, i.e. reaches a five degree of completion, a linear combination of ephPrK, ephPuK, ShS of multiple lines may be performed]
Regarding Claim 7, Caserta discloses wherein a key status flag or key counter connected to the key memory is implemented in the UICC, indicating presence or absence of stored public/private key pairs or ECC public/private key pairs and Ephemeral shared keys, or a sufficient or insufficient number of stored public/private key pairs or ECC public/private key pairs and Ephemeral shared keys, in the key memory. [Table 4]
Regarding Claim 8, Caserta discloses wherein the UICC further comprises a watcher logic coupled to the key memory, the method further comprising the step: by the watcher logic, monitor the key status flag or key counter; wherein the deterministic event is established as the watcher logic detecting upon the monitored key status flag or key counter absence of, or absence of a sufficient number of, public/private key pairs or ECC public/private key pairs and Ephemeral shared keys. [paragraph 0104, Additionally, if no token is nearly finished, i.e. reaches a five degree of completion, a linear combination of ephPrK, ephPuK, ShS of multiple lines may be performed]
Regarding Claim 9, Caserta discloses wherein an insufficient number of public/private key pairs or ECC public/private key pairs and Ephemeral shared keys in the key memory is a number below: twenty, ten, five, one, or some other intermediate value from twenty to one. [paragraph 0104, Additionally, if no token is nearly finished, i.e. reaches a five degree of completion, a linear combination of ephPrK, ephPuK, ShS of multiple lines may be performed]
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caserta in view of Bradley, as applied to Claim1, above, and further in view of Griffin et al., (US 20140287685 A1) hereinafter referred to as Griffin.
Regarding Claim 10, the combination of Caserta and Bradley does not explicitly teach wherein the deterministic event is established as: loss of network coverage or connectivity in the 5G mobile communication network.
Griffin teaches wherein the deterministic event is established as: loss of network coverage or connectivity in the 5G mobile communication network.[paragraph 0130, if a locally connected device 230a-c is lost or stolen, portable bridge device 100 may detect the lost connectivity and "lock out" that locally connected device 230a-c – teaches that the lost connectivity is a trigger for another action]
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Griffin with the disclosures of Caserta and Bradley. The motivation or suggestion would have been to “provide an added level of security.” (paragraph 0130)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW J STEINLE whose telephone number is (571)272-9923. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10am-6pm CT.
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/ANDREW J STEINLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2497