Electronic assembly comprising a disabling module

Abstract

An electronic assembly for an electronic device may include a detection module to detect a security anomaly of a Rich-OS operating system and a disabling module to disable at least one secure function of the electronic device in response to the detection. The disablement nevertheless allows use of the electronic device in fail-soft mode. The electronic assembly may be implemented such that these two modules are dependent on a trusted operating system, and the trusted operating system and the Rich-OS operating system may be stored in a memory of the electronic assembly and executed on the electronic assembly.

1 . An electronic assembly for an electronic device, the electronic assembly comprising:
 a detection module to detect a security anomaly of a Rich-OS operating system; and   a disabling module which in response to said detection disables at least one secure function of said electronic device used by applications of the Rich-OS operating system;   wherein the disablement allows use of the electronic device in fail-soft mode, and   wherein the implementation of the detection module and the disabling module is dependent on a trusted operating system, the trusted operating system and the Rich-OS operating system being stored in a memory of the electronic assembly, and being executed on the electronic assembly.   
     
     
         2 . The electronic assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the security anomaly is corruption of the Rich-OS operating system. 
     
     
         3 . The electronic assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the detection module is capable of receiving a message containing a securing command. 
     
     
         4 . The electronic assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one secure function comprises of at least one chosen from a group consisting of:
 an application of a secure element, executed by the electronic device; and   a function providing access to at least one sensitive data item of a secure Element, the at least one sensitive data item being accessible to the electronic device.   
     
     
         5 . The electronic assembly according to  claim 4 , wherein the disabling module is capable of performing operations comprising:
 sending a disabling instruction of said application, to the application; and   waiting for acknowledgement of disablement of said application; wherein the trusted operating system takes steps to ensure the security of said electronic device when the acknowledgement is negative.   
     
     
         6 . The electronic assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the detection module is activated in response to verification of the security of the electronic device, triggered by at least one chosen from a group consisting of:
 on the initiative of the trusted operating system,   on start-up of the electronic device,   at regular intervals, and   on the initiative of a user of said electronic device.   
     
     
         7 . The electronic assembly according to  claim 1  wherein the detection module performs on-the-fly calculation of a fingerprint of a specific series of octets in each level of the operating system and compares the fingerprint with a reference fingerprint. 
     
     
         8 . A terminal comprising:
 an electronic assembly according to  claim 1 .   
     
     
         9 . The terminal according to  claim 8 , wherein the terminal is a mobile telephony terminal. 
     
     
         10 . A method for securing an electronic device, the method comprising:
 detecting a security anomaly of a Rich-OS operating system; and   disabling, in response to the detecting, at least one secure function of said electronic device, wherein the disabling allows use of said electronic device in fail-soft mode,   wherein the method is implemented using a trusted operating system, and the trusted operating system and the Rich-OS operating system are executed on the electronic device.   
     
     
         11 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method comprising:
 detecting a security anomaly of a Rich-OS operating system; and   disabling, in response to the detecting, at least one secure function of an electronic device, wherein the disabling allows use of the electronic device in fail-soft mode,   wherein the detecting and the disabling are implemented using a trusted operating system, and the trusted operating system and the Rich-OS operating system are executed on the electronic device.   
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 11 , wherein the method is included in the trusted operating system. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 11 , wherein the method is included in a patch on said trusted operating system. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 11 , wherein the method is included in an application implementation-dependent on said trusted operating system. 
     
     
         15 . (canceled)