Patent ID: 8751824

Claim:
A method for protecting software of a mobile terminal, comprising: when the mobile terminal is turned on, detecting whether or not an encryption chip is invalid, wherein the encryption chip is mounted in the mobile terminal and information in the encryption chip cannot be modified by a main chip of the mobile terminal; when the encryption chip is not invalid, authenticating, by the encryption chip, the software of the mobile terminal through interaction with the main chip; and when the authentication is not passed, controlling, by the encryption chip, a functional module of the mobile terminal through a hardware protection circuit; wherein the authenticating, by the encryption chip, the software of the mobile terminal through interaction with a main chip comprises: sending, by the encryption chip, a secret key configured to authenticate the software of the mobile terminal to the main chip; after the main chip receives said secret key, searching, by the main chip, a secret key matched with said secret key in the main chip itself; returning, by the main chip, the matched secret key or an authentication passed message to the encryption chip when the secret key matched with said secret key is found; and returning, by the main chip, an authentication failure message or not returning the matched secret key to the encryption chip when the secret key matched with said secret key is not found or not searched; when the encryption chip receives the authentication failure message or does not receive the matched secret key in a set period of time, then indicating that the authentication is not passed; when the encryption chip receives the authentication passed message or the matched secret key, indicating that the authentication is passed; wherein the secret key configured to authenticate the software of the mobile terminal and the secret key matched with said secret key are secret keys matched with each other and are respectively preset by a computer in the encryption chip and in the main chip; or reading, by the encryption chip, a status of a GPIO interface of the main chip; when the status of the GPIO interface changes according to a preset period, indicating that the authentication is passed; when the status of the GPIO interface does not change according to the preset period, indicating that the authentication is not passed.