14 DAY TRIAL // There are a lot of devices that have a fingerprint scanner, but keeping those fingerprints in a secure place inside the device is a real issue, that Apple may have solved.
The A7 chip that we currently have in the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and the second-generation iPad Mini (a.k.a retina iPad Mini) is the only one with a Secure Enclave. That is an area that stores and protects the data received from the Touch ID sensor.
Apple has detailed all the information about the Secure Enclave in a Security White Paper they have released back in February 2014. The document published in Apple's "iPhone in Business" website explains how the Secure Enclave works in the latest system-on-a-chip developed by the Californian tech giant.
Apple engineers explained at the time that the Secure Enclave "is provisioned during fabrication with its own UID (Unique ID) that is not accessible to other parts of the system and is not known to Apple. When the device starts up, an ephemeral key is created, tangled with its UID, and used to encrypt the Secure Enclave's portion of the device's memory space. Additionally, data that is saved to the file system by the Secure Enclave is encrypted with a key tangled with the UID and an anti-replay counter."
On Tuesday, Apple was granted with a Patent for their invention. It is called "Trust zone support in system on a chip having security enclave processor," a rather long name for the A7 secret sauce that makes the Touch ID fingerprint sensor work.
patentlyapple.com says that the Patent application goes on explaining that the security of the SOC and its ability to resist attacks meant to compromise secure data are becoming increasingly important features.
That is because Apple is going to open Touch ID to developers with iOS 8. The official website for iOS 8 Beta reveals that the developers will have, for the first time, the option of using Touch ID to sign in to third-party apps. There is no password needed and the user's fingerprint data is protected and is never accessed by iOS or other apps.
We have already seen concepts of how the apps could benefit of that new API. The developers of 1Password, the premiere iOS and Mac password locker have posted several videos online that show the integration of Touch ID. When Apple integrates Touch ID with their Mac lineup, maybe the app should change its name to 1Fingerprint.
For the new Patent, Apple credits inventors Stephen Polzin, James Keller and Gerard Williams. It is also interesting to know that the Patent application was originally filed in September of 2012.