System and method for broadcast environment group key-derivation

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

taking as input, at a tamper resistant hardware environment, a salt, wherein the salt is subject to a form requirement, and wherein the salt not satisfying the form requirement results in group key derivation failure;

for a set of receivers, determining to provide a component key for each possible subset X of receivers with fewer than k members, where k is a predefined constant;

determining to define an iterative ordering function that orders the receiver subsets X;

for a subset of privileged receivers, determining which subsets X do not contain members of the privileged receiver subset and determining to identify the component keys associated with each subset X which does not contain members of the privileged receiver subset;

determining to define a pseudo random function that takes an arbitrary number of component keys as inputs and outputs a group key; and

determining to use as inputs to the pseudo random function:

a first constant and a second constant, wherein each of the first constant and the second constant is of a length equal to a concatenation of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset; and

one of:

a sequential application, in the order given by the iterative ordering function, to the pseudo random function of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset; and

a concatenation of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset,

wherein the output of the pseudo random function is a privileged receiver specific group key.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

an additional iterative ordering function that assigns component keys to each subset X.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein, the method is performed by the receiver; and wherein the receiver determines to only perform the method if it is a member of the privileged subset.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pseudo random function takes an additional salt parameter.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the salt is one of a time of day and specific to a group definition.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the salt is a parameter independent of the component keys.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a tamper resistant hardware environment, comprising storage and logic, wherein the tamper resistant hardware environment stores a plurality of component keys and wherein the tamper resistant hardware environment is configured to:

take as input, at the tamper resistant hardware environment, a salt, wherein the salt is subject to a form requirement, and wherein the salt not satisfying the form requirement results in group key derivation failure;

for a set of receivers, determine to provide, from the stored plurality of component keys, a component key for each possible subset X of receivers with fewer than k members, where k is a predefined constant;

determine to define an iterative ordering function that orders the receiver subsets X;

for a subset of privileged receivers, determine which subsets X do not contain members of the privileged receiver subset and determine to identify the component keys associated with each subset X which does not contain members of the privileged receiver subset;

determine to define a pseudo random function that takes an arbitrary number of component keys as inputs and outputs a group key; and

determine to use as inputs to the pseudo random function:

a first constant and a second constant, wherein each of the first constant and the second constant is of a length equal to a concatenation of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset; and

one of:

a sequential application, in the order given by the iterative ordering function, to the pseudo random function of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset; and

a concatenation of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset,

wherein the output of the pseudo random function is a privileged receiver specific group key.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the pseudo random function takes an additional salt parameter.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the salt is one of a time of day and specific to a group definition.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the salt is a parameter independent of the component keys.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

an additional iterative ordering function that assigns component keys to each subset X.

12. A computer program product comprising computer executable program code recorded on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the computer executable program code comprising:

code for causing taking as input, at a tamper resistant hardware environment, a salt, wherein the salt is subject to a form requirement, and wherein the salt not satisfying the form requirement results in group key derivation failure;

code for causing, for a set of receivers, determination to provide a component key for each possible subset X of receivers with fewer than k members, where k is a predefined constant;

code for causing determination to define an iterative ordering function that orders the receiver subsets X;

code for causing, for a subset of privileged receivers, determination of which subsets X do not contain members of the privileged receiver subset and determination to identify the component keys associated with each subset X which does not contain members of the privileged receiver subset;

code for causing determination to define a pseudo random function that takes an arbitrary number of component keys as inputs and outputs a group key; and

code for causing determination to use as inputs to the pseudo random function:

a first constant and a second constant, wherein each of the first constant and the second constant is of a length equal to a concatenation of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset; and

one of:

a sequential application, in the order given by the iterative ordering function, to the pseudo random function of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset; and

a concatenation of the component keys associated with subsets of X of size less than k not containing members of the privileged receiver subset,

wherein the output of the pseudo random function is a privileged receiver specific group key.