Conax CAS7 Pairing

The pairing has three main objectives:

• Prevent STB hijacking: By including a Pairing module inside the STB, the STB can ensure that the smart card inserted in the STB has been issued by a particular operator. Thus, the operator can control that the STB is not used for receiving services from another operator.
• Hinder the use of pirate cards on the STB: If there is a unique pairing between a particular STB (via the Pairing module) and a particular smart card, and a pirate has obtained the secrets of one or a few legitimate cards, then this unique pairing will prevent easy distribution of pirate cards.
• Hinder content piracy by control word distribution: With the increase in the number of online systems, distribution of control words is becoming a commercial problem. By securing the transport path between the smart card and the STB, such attacks become more difficult to perform.

Unlike standard Conax CAS7 STBs, Conax STBs with Pairing module have to be configured with unique data at production time. Therefore, Conax STBs with Pairing module must be specifically produced and the pairing data must be included from the outset.