JP2007174314A - Electronic certificate managing method and image processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic certificate managing method and an image processor for handling a reliable electronic certificate. <P>SOLUTION: The electronic certificate managing method in the image processor 10 for reading one file obtained by integrating electronic certificate groups from a storage device, developing the electronic certificate groups from the one file and handling the electronic certificate groups is provided with a step for receiving one file obtained by integrating electronic certificate groups held by a distributor 11 when there is a difference between the electronic certificate groups held by the distributor 11 for distributing the electronic certificate groups and the electronic certificate groups held by the image processor 10, and a step for updating one file stored in a storage device by the received one file. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic certificate management method and an image processing apparatus, and more particularly to an electronic certificate management method and an image processing apparatus for handling a reliable electronic certificate.

  An image processing device is a device that processes information about an image, such as a printer, a copy device, a facsimile device, a scanner device, or a multifunction device in which some or all of the functions of each device described above are housed in a single housing. Equipment. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a multi-function machine in which functions of devices such as a printer, a copy machine, a facsimile machine, and a scanner are housed in one housing. Here, a multifunction peripheral will be described as an example of an image processing apparatus.

  The multifunction device is provided with a display unit, a printing unit, an imaging unit, and the like in a single casing, and with an application corresponding to each of a printer device, a copy device, a facsimile device, and a scanner device. Operates as a device, a facsimile device, and a scanner device. In addition, the multifunction machine includes a large-capacity storage such as a hard disk device (HDD) and can store data such as documents and images.

  In recent years, with the development and popularization of networks such as the Internet and LAN, multifunction devices have communication functions. A multifunction device having a communication function can be connected to an external device via a network.

  In this way, MFPs that can be connected to external devices have mechanisms such as access control that prohibits unauthorized access from users who do not have proper usage rights, digital signatures that prevent impersonation and tampering, and encryption that prevents eavesdropping. It has been demanded. Digital signature is a technique for detecting impersonation and falsification by tracing back the process of public key cryptography using a public key and a private key.

  However, since it is not possible to specify exactly whether the user who has the private key is the person himself / herself in the digital signature, there is a possibility that another person has made and released the key from the beginning. Therefore, PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) has come to be used as a mechanism for certifying that the public key and the private key belong to the user.

In PKI, an electronic certificate (digital certificate) issued by a certificate authority (CA) is used as data for proving that a public key for digital signature analysis is authentic. Patent Documents 2 to 5 describe technologies that use electronic certificates.
JP 2002-84383 A JP 2005-10301 A JP 2003-296638 A JP 2001-154988 A JP 2003-296742 A

  In order to realize the PKI environment described above, it is a problem how to manage one or more electronic certificates (hereinafter referred to as electronic certificate groups) issued from a trusted certificate authority. In order to realize the PKI environment, a mechanism for holding a reliable electronic certificate group and preventing tampering with the electronic certificate group is necessary.

  For example, as a method for realizing a PKI environment in a multi-function peripheral, there are a method for managing an electronic certificate group with a device other than the multi-function peripheral such as a server device, and a method for managing with a multi-function peripheral. The method of managing the electronic certificate group by a device other than the multifunction device such as a server device has a problem that the device configuration in the system becomes redundant. In addition, there is a problem that the method of managing the electronic certificate group with the multifunction peripheral must satisfy the following management conditions for the electronic certificate group.

  First, since the multifunction device absolutely guarantees the electronic certificate group, it is necessary to prevent the malicious user from falsifying the electronic certificate group. Secondly, since the multi-function device absolutely guarantees the electronic certificate group, it is necessary to prevent an unauthorized addition of the electronic certificate group. Thirdly, it is not necessary for the multifunction peripheral to limit the browsing of the contents of the electronic certificate group that is information to be disclosed.

  Fourth, the multi-function peripheral needs to update the electronic certificate group which is information that is constantly updated. Fifth, the multi-function peripheral needs to store a group of electronic certificates in a general-purpose storage device and guarantee free access from any application.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an electronic certificate management method and an image processing apparatus for handling a reliable electronic certificate.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention reads one file in which a group of reliable electronic certificates is collected from a storage device, expands the electronic certificate group from the one file, and stores the electronic certificate group. An electronic certificate management method in an image processing apparatus to be handled, the electronic certificate group held by a distribution apparatus that distributes the electronic certificate group, and the electronic certificate group held by the image processing apparatus, When there is a difference, a step of receiving one file in which the electronic certificate group held by the distribution device is collected, and the one file stored in the storage device by the received one file And a step of updating.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus that reads a single file including a group of reliable electronic certificates from a storage device, expands the electronic certificate group from the single file, and handles the electronic certificate group. The distribution device holds the electronic certificate group held by the distribution device that distributes the electronic certificate group and the electronic certificate group held by the image processing device. An update means is provided for receiving one file in which the electronic certificate group is collected and updating the one file stored in the storage device with the received one file. .

  In addition, what applied the component, expression, or arbitrary combination of the component of this invention to a method, an apparatus, a system, a computer program, a recording medium, a data structure, etc. is also effective as an aspect of this invention.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic certificate management method and an image processing apparatus for handling a reliable electronic certificate.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described based on the following embodiments with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a multifunction peripheral is described as an example of an image processing apparatus. However, any apparatus or device that processes information about an image may be used.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a system including a multifunction machine according to the present invention. The system of FIG. 1 has a configuration in which a multifunction machine 10, a distribution device 11, and an administrator terminal 12 are connected via a network 13 such as the Internet or a LAN. The multifunction machine 10, the distribution device 11, and the administrator terminal 12 have a communication function and can communicate via the network 13.

  The multifunction machine 10 is provided with a display unit, a printing unit, an imaging unit, and the like in a single housing, and with applications corresponding to the printer device, the copy device, the facsimile device, and the scanner device. Operates as a copy machine, facsimile machine, and scanner. The multifunction machine includes a large-capacity storage such as an HDD, and can store data such as documents and images.

  The distribution device 11 is provided, for example, in a certificate authority (CA) that is an organization that issues an electronic certificate. The distribution apparatus 11 issues an electronic certificate as data certifying that the public key for digital signature analysis is authentic. The manager terminal 12 is a terminal operated by the manager. For example, the administrator operates the administrator terminal 12 to update the electronic certificate stored in the multifunction machine 10.

  In the present invention, in order to realize the PKI environment in the multifunction device 10, the digital certificate group is managed by the multifunction device 10 while satisfying the first to fifth management conditions described above. Details of management of the electronic certificate group in the multifunction machine 10 will be described later. Next, the hardware configuration of the multifunction machine 10 will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of an embodiment of the multifunction machine according to the present invention. 2 includes a controller 100, an operation panel 120, an FCU 121, and an engine unit 122.

  2 includes a CPU 101, a system memory 102, a north bridge (NB) 103, a south bridge (SB) 104, an ASIC 106, a local memory 107, an HDD 108, a NIC (network interface card) 109, , SD card I / F 110, SD card 111, USB I / F 112, IEEE 1394 I / F 113, and Centronics I / F 114.

  The CPU 101 performs overall control of the multifunction machine 10. For example, the CPU 101 activates and executes a process on the OS. The NB 103 is a bridge. The SB 104 is a bridge for connecting the PCI bus 115 to a ROM, a peripheral device, or the like. The system memory 102 is a memory used as a drawing memory or the like of the multifunction machine 10. The local memory 107 is a memory used as a copy image buffer and a code buffer.

  The ASIC 106 is an IC for image processing applications having hardware elements for image processing. The HDD 108 is an example of an auxiliary storage device that stores image data, document data, programs, font data, and the like. The NIC 109 is an interface device that connects the multifunction machine 10 to a network.

  For example, the SD card I / F 110 includes a slot into which the SD card 111 can be inserted and removed. The USB I / F 112, the IEEE 1394 I / F 113, and the Centronics I / F 114 are interfaces conforming to the respective standards.

  The operation panel 120 is an operation unit that accepts an input operation from the user and performs display for the user. The FCU 121 is a control unit that provides a fax function. The engine unit 122 is a group of software and hardware that provides a predetermined function. For example, the printing mechanism portion is called a printer engine or the like.

  Hereinafter, a method of managing the electronic certificate group with the multifunction device 10 while satisfying the first to fifth management conditions described above will be described. The multi-function device 10 stores an image file 302 as shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is an image diagram of an example of an image file in which electronic certificate groups are collected. In FIG. 3, the electronic certificate is represented as a certificate file.

  The multi-function device 10 stores one image file 302 in which reliable electronic certificate groups 301 are collected in the HDD 108 or the like. The image file 302 is a ROM image of the trusted electronic certificate group 301. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction machine 10 reads the image file 302 after activation, and expands the electronic certificate group 304 from the image file 302.

  The CPU 101 of the multifunction machine 10 activates and executes the electronic certificate group management module 303 on the OS. For example, the electronic certificate group management module 303 may be stored in the HDD 108 or the SD card 111 in advance, or may be provided from the distribution apparatus 11 to the multifunction machine 10. The electronic certificate group management module 303 expands the electronic certificate group 304 in, for example, the system memory 102 with an arbitrary configuration. The expanded electronic certificate group 304 can be accessed from the entire process started and executed by the CPU 101 of the multifunction machine 10.

  Note that the electronic certificate group management module 303 verifies the validity of the image file 302 before expanding the electronic certificate group 304 from the image file 302. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of processing when the validity of the image file is verified and confirmed to be valid.

  Authentication information using a hash technique is added to the image file 302. The electronic certificate group management module 303 uses the authentication information added to the image file 302 to verify the validity by, for example, challenge response authentication. Information (such as a password for challenge response authentication) necessary for verification of validity is stored in the SD card 111, for example.

  When the validity is verified, the electronic certificate group management module 303 expands the electronic certificate group 304 from the image file 302 into an arbitrary folder. The electronic certificate group 304 expanded in an arbitrary folder can be freely referred to from the application of the multifunction machine 10.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of processing performed when the validity of the image file is verified and the image file cannot be confirmed. When the validity cannot be verified, the electronic certificate group management module 303 stops the process of expanding the electronic certificate group 304 from the image file 302 to an arbitrary folder.

  That is, the electronic certificate group management module 303 cannot confirm that the image file 302 is valid when a malicious user has altered the image file 302 or added illegal data. The process of expanding 304 to an arbitrary folder is stopped. Therefore, the multifunction machine 10 can prevent the image file 302 from being falsified or illegal data added.

  Next, update of the image file 302 stored in the HDD 108 of the multifunction machine 10 will be described. Here, an example in which the administrator operates the administrator terminal 12 to update the image file 302 will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an example when the administrator updates the image file. It is assumed that an administrator who operates the administrator terminal 12 has update authority for the image file 302. When there is an update request for the image file 302 from the administrator, the manager terminal 12 receives the updated image file from the distribution device 11. The update image file is an image file for updating the image file 302 stored in the multifunction machine 10. The administrator terminal 12 remotely updates the image file 302 stored in the multifunction machine 10 using the updated image file.

  Note that the timing at which the administrator terminal 12 receives the update image file from the distribution terminal 11 is not limited to after an update request for the image file 302 is received from the administrator, but may be at predetermined intervals.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an example when an administrator who does not have update authority tries to update the image file 302. Even when an administrator who does not have update authority attempts to update the image file 302, the administrator terminal 12 can receive the updated image file from the distribution device 11. This is because the updated image file can be freely acquired by anyone.

  Since the administrator who does not have the update authority tries to update the image file 302, the administrator terminal 12 regards the remote update of the image file 302 using the update image file as invalid. That is, remote update of the image file 302 by an administrator who does not have update authority fails.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a case where an administrator having update authority attempts to update an image file with an unauthorized update image file. When an administrator with update authority attempts to update the image file 302, the administrator terminal 12 attempts to remotely update the image file 302 stored in the multifunction machine 10 using the updated image file.

  However, the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction machine 10 verifies the validity of the image file 302, and if it cannot be confirmed that the image file 302 is valid, the remote update of the image file 302 using the update image file is regarded as invalid. . That is, the remote update of the image file 302 with an illegal update image file fails.

  Next, an example in which the administrator updates the image file 302 without operating the administrator terminal 12 will be described. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram of an example when the image file is regularly updated by the multifunction machine.

  In step S1, the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction device 10 periodically monitors the list of electronic certificate groups stored in the distribution apparatus 11 at predetermined time intervals. When there is a new list in the list of electronic certificate groups stored in the distribution apparatus 11, the distribution apparatus 11 notifies the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction machine 10 that there is a new list. In step S 3, the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction machine 10 sends an update request for the stored image file 302 to the distribution apparatus 11.

  When there is an update request for the image file 302 from the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction device 10, the distribution apparatus 11 proceeds to step S <b> 4 and transmits the updated image file to the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction device 10. When the updated image file is received, the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction machine 10 updates the stored image file 302 using the updated image file.

  FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram of an example when the image file is periodically updated led by the distribution apparatus. In step S10, the distribution apparatus 11 periodically checks the list of electronic certificate groups stored in the multifunction machine 10 every predetermined time. In step S 11, the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction peripheral 10 transmits a stored list of electronic certificate groups to the distribution apparatus 11.

  If there is a new list in the list of electronic certificate groups stored in the distribution apparatus 11, the distribution apparatus 11 proceeds to step S <b> 12 and transmits the update image file to the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction machine 10. When the updated image file is received, the electronic certificate group management module 303 of the multifunction machine 10 updates the stored image file 302 using the updated image file.

  Next, the relationship between the electronic certificate group 304 and the application will be described. Since the electronic certificate group 304 is mounted in an arbitrary folder of the multifunction machine 10, it can be freely accessed from an application using the PKI of the multifunction machine 10. FIG. 12 is an image diagram showing a state in which an electronic certificate group mounted in an arbitrary folder can be freely accessed from an application using PKI.

  Further, since the electronic certificate group 304 is expanded as a virtual file by mounting, it cannot be rewritten. FIG. 13 is an image diagram showing a state where an electronic certificate group mounted in an arbitrary folder cannot be rewritten from an application using PKI.

  As shown in FIG. 12, since the application of the MFP 10 can freely access the electronic certificate group 304 mounted in an arbitrary folder, various security techniques using PKI can be used as shown in FIG.

  According to the multifunction machine 10 of the present invention, first, since the electronic certificate group is absolutely guaranteed, it is possible to prevent falsification of the electronic certificate group by a malicious user. Second, since the multifunction device 10 absolutely guarantees the electronic certificate group, it is possible to prevent an unauthorized addition of the electronic certificate group. Thirdly, it is not necessary for the multifunction device 10 to restrict browsing of the contents of the electronic certificate group that is information to be disclosed. Fourth, the multi-function device 10 can easily update the electronic certificate group which is information that is constantly updated. Fifth, the multifunction device 10 can store the electronic certificate group in a general-purpose storage device and guarantee free access from any application. As described above, the multifunction machine 10 according to the present invention can manage the electronic certificate group 304 while satisfying the first to fifth management conditions described above.

  The present invention is not limited to the specifically disclosed embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the claims.

It is a block diagram of one Example of the system containing the multifunctional device by this invention. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of an embodiment of a multifunction machine according to the present invention. It is an image figure of an example of the image file which put together the electronic certificate group. It is an image figure of an example showing a mode that an electronic certificate group is expand | deployed from an image file. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of processing performed when the validity of an image file is verified and confirmed to be valid. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of processing performed when the validity of an image file is verified and cannot be confirmed as valid. It is a work flow chart of an example in case an administrator updates an image file. FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a case where an administrator who does not have update authority attempts to update an image file. FIG. 10 is a work flow diagram of an example when an administrator with update authority attempts to update an image file with an unauthorized update image file. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram of an example in a case where an image file is regularly updated by a multifunction peripheral. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram of an example when an image file is periodically updated led by a distribution device. It is an image figure showing a mode that the electronic certificate group mounted in arbitrary folders is freely accessible from the application using PKI. It is an image figure showing a mode that the electronic certificate group mounted in arbitrary folders cannot be rewritten from the application using PKI. It is an image figure showing the various security technologies using PKI.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 System 10 Multifunction machine 11 Distribution apparatus 12 Administrator terminal 13 Network 101 CPU
102 System memory 108 HDD
111 SD Card 120 Operation Panel 301 Trusted Digital Certificate Group 302 Image File 303 Electronic Certificate Group Management Module 304 Expanded Electronic Certificate Group

Claims (6)

An electronic certificate management method in an image processing apparatus that reads a single file containing a group of reliable electronic certificates from a storage device, expands the electronic certificate group from the one file, and handles the electronic certificate group There,
When there is a difference between the electronic certificate group held by the distribution apparatus that distributes the electronic certificate group and the electronic certificate group held by the image processing apparatus, the distribution apparatus holds Receiving one file summarizing the electronic certificate group;
And updating the one file stored in the storage device with the received one file.   The electronic certificate management method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of verifying validity of the received one file before the step of updating the one file.   The electronic certificate management method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of expanding the electronic certificate group as a non-rewritable virtual file. An image processing apparatus that reads one file that summarizes a group of reliable electronic certificates from a storage device, expands the electronic certificate group from the one file, and handles the electronic certificate group,
When there is a difference between the electronic certificate group held by the distribution apparatus that distributes the electronic certificate group and the electronic certificate group held by the image processing apparatus, the distribution apparatus holds Receive one file summarizing the electronic certificate group,
An image processing apparatus comprising update means for updating the one file stored in the storage device with the received one file.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the updating unit verifies the validity of the received one file before updating the one file.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the update unit expands the electronic certificate group as a virtual file that cannot be rewritten.

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