Configurable one-time authentication tokens with improved resilience to attacks

1. A method for configuring a one-time authentication token, comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of selectively enabled token features in said configurable one-time authentication token, wherein said plurality of selectively enabled token features comprise at least two of a split-server passcode verification feature, a silent alarms feature, a drifting keys feature, a forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature, a token randomness generation feature used for the generation of passcodes, a randomized state transitions feature, a data-transaction signing feature, an auxiliary channel feature and a time synchronization feature used to maintain synchronization between said one-time authentication token and an authentication server;

obtaining a configuration selection of at least said plurality of said selectively enabled token features; and

configuring said one-time authentication token based on said configuration selection to enable said selected token features in said one-time authentication token, wherein said configuration selection must always enable said forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature for said one-time authentication token and at least one additional selected token feature, wherein said time synchronization feature communicates that a forward clock attack has occurred.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of ensuring said configuration selection satisfies one or more dependency rules relating at least two of said selectively enabled token features.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said one or more dependency rules comprise requiring that each of said split-server passcode verification feature and said silent alarms feature each require said forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein said one or more dependency rules comprise requiring said randomized state transitions feature requires a randomness source feature.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein said one or more dependency rules comprise requiring said drifting keys feature and said silent alarms feature require said auxiliary channel feature.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein said one or more dependency rules comprise requiring said drifting keys feature requires a randomness source feature.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said split-server passcode verification feature, said silent alarms feature and said drifting keys feature comprise high-layer protection that provides intrusion-detection and intrusion-resilience.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said high-layer protection provides resistance to cloning of said one-time authentication token.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature, said token randomness generation feature and said randomized state transitions feature comprise low-layer protection that provides tamper-resistance.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said low-layer protection provides leakage resistance by said one-time authentication token of a secret state of said one-time authentication token.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said data-transaction signing feature, said auxiliary channel feature and said time synchronization feature comprise intermediate-layer protection that provides token-visibility.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said intermediate-layer protection allows said one-time authentication token to communicate an assessment of said one-time authentication token to said authentication server.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein said one-time authentication token is selectively configured at one or more of a time of manufacture, system initialization and software update time.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable recordable storage medium for configuring a one-time authentication token, wherein one or more software programs when executed by one or more processing devices implement the steps of the method of claim 1 .

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein said drifting keys feature is enabled and wherein said method further comprises the step of using one or more drifting key bits to update a drifting-key state for said drifting keys feature.

16. An apparatus for configuring a one-time authentication token, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

at least one hardware device, coupled to the memory, configured to implement the following steps:

provide a plurality of selectively enabled token features in said configurable one-time authentication token, wherein said plurality of selectively enabled token features comprise at least two of split-server passcode verification feature, a silent alarms feature, a drifting keys feature, a forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature, a token randomness generation feature used for the generation of passcodes, a randomized state transitions feature, a data-transaction signing feature, an auxiliary channel feature and a time synchronization feature used to maintain synchronization between said one-time authentication token and an authentication server,

obtain a configuration selection of at least said plurality of said selectively enabled token features; and

configure said one-time authentication token based on said configuration selection to enable said selected token features in said one-time authentication token, wherein said configuration selection must always enable said forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature for said one-time authentication token and at least one additional selected token feature, wherein said time synchronization feature communicates that a forward clock attack has occurred.

17. A configurable one-time authentication token, comprising:

a plurality of selectively enabled token features in said configurable one-time authentication token, wherein said plurality of selectively enabled token features comprise at least two of split-server passcode verification feature, a silent alarms feature, a drifting keys feature, a forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature, a token randomness generation feature used for the generation of passcodes, a randomized state transitions feature, a data-transaction signing feature, an auxiliary channel feature and a time synchronization feature that maintains synchronization between said one-time authentication token and an authentication server, wherein said configurable one-time authentication token is always configured to enable said forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature for said one-time authentication token and at least one additional token feature, wherein said time synchronization feature communicates that a forward clock attack has occurred, and wherein said forward-secure pseudorandom number generation feature obtains a secret state from at least one memory using at least one processing device.

18. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 17 , wherein said configurable one-time authentication token computes a user authentication passcode based on a state corresponding to a current leaf node in a hierarchical tree.

19. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 17 , further comprising a plurality of protocode generation modules for generating a plurality of protocodes for use with a plurality of split authentication servers.

20. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 19 , wherein said plurality of protocode generation modules comprise a forward secure pseudo random number generator and a protocode generator.

21. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 20 , wherein said forward secure pseudo random number generators produce a forward-secure pseudorandom key K that is processed by said protocode generator based on a current time epoch T of said configurable one-time authentication token and optionally additional data input D to generate a corresponding protocode P.

22. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 20 , wherein only one of said forward secure pseudo random number generators produce forward secure pseudo random values processed by an auxiliary-information module of said configurable one-time authentication token.

23. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 17 , further comprising an auxiliary-information module.

24. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 23 , wherein said auxiliary-information module encodes one or more bits into a codeword to embed auxiliary information into a final passcode at time epoch T.

25. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 23 , wherein said auxiliary-information module sets a flag to indicate if auxiliary information is embedded in a final passcode at time epoch T.

26. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 23 , wherein said auxiliary-information module maps one or more bits from said silent alarm feature and said drifting keys feature into a codeword.

27. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein said silent alarm feature produces one or more silent alarm bits corresponding to a silent alarm state of said configurable one-time authentication token.

28. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein said drifting keys feature generates an updated set of keys κ t for time t by applying a randomized key update function to a previous set of keys κ t-1 for time t−1.

29. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein said drifting keys feature shifts a drifting key state by k positions and inserts new random bits into the drifting key state.

30. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , further comprising a passcode-generation module that combines outputs of one or more protocode generation modules with an output of an auxiliary-information module to produce a final one-time authentication passcode.

31. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein a random jitter delays or expedites a beginning of a computation of one or more operations with respect to a beginning of a current epoch T.

32. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein at least a first forward secure pseudo random number generator sequentially updates a state and computes a first pseudorandom key and values; and wherein if T is the beginning of an epoch {tilde over (T)} that is larger than T, then said first pseudorandom keys and values are precomputed for some future epochs T.

33. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein at least two forward secure pseudo random number generators exchange hashes of partial states that lie at a higher level of a hierarchy.

34. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein a combined protocode for epoch T is computed, incorporating any additional transactional data input to the token for epoch T.

35. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein at epoch T, a silent-alarm state is sampled to a silent-alarm bit and a drifting-key state is sampled to drifting-key bits; wherein if T corresponds to the beginning of an epoch T , then the drifting-key state is updated and shifted prior to said sampling of drifting-key bits.

36. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein an auxiliary channel maps auxiliary-information bits to a codeword W T , by which a combined protocode is shifted to obtain a final OTP passcode for epoch T.

37. The configurable one-time authentication token of claim 26 , wherein if a current epoch T is a first epoch after a launching of a token application, then one or more forward secure pseudorandom number generators update their states in a step of an appropriate length.