Mcafee, Inc.

Isara Corporation

Alessandro Faieta

Akos Horvath

Jameson Beach

Douglas Bell

Atsushi Yamada

Jiayuan Sui

Robert Williams

Parnian Alimi

In a general aspect, a multiple-entity root of trust is constructed and maintained for use in a cryptography system. In some aspects, a genesis data block includes genesis block data entries representing respective member entities of a root of trust consortium. A genesis block is generated by digitally signing the genesis data block. The genesis block is provided for use by end entities as a root of trust in a cryptography system. In some aspects, a hash of an existing block of a chain is obtained, and a data block comprising a data entry is generated. The data entry identifies an action by one or more member entities of the root of trust consortium. A new block of the chain is generated by digitally signing a combination of the data block and the hash of the existing block. The new block is provided for use by end entities as the root of trust in the cryptography system.

Constructing a multiple entity root of trust

A method, system, and computer program product for protecting a computer system provides bootstrap operating system detection and recovery and provides the capability to detect malware, such as rootkits, before the operating system has been loaded and provides the capability to patch malfunctions that block the ability of the computer system to access the Internet. A method for protecting a computer system includes reading stored status information indicating whether network connectivity was available the last time an operating system of the computer system was operational, when the stored status information indicates that network connectivity was not available, obtaining a software patch, and executing and applying the software patch.

Bootstrap OS protection and recovery

A method and system is provided by which unauthorized changes to the registry may be detected and that provides the capability to verify whether registry, or other system configuration data, changes that occur on a computer system are undesirable or related to possible malware attack before the changes become effective or are saved on the system. A method for verifying changes to system configuration data in a computer system comprises generating an identifier representing an entry in the system configuration data, packaging the identifier, and sending the packaged identifier to a client for verification. The identifier may be generated by hashing the first portion of the entry and the second portion of the entry to generate the identifier, or by filtering the first portion of the entry and hashing the filtered first portion of the entry and the second portion of the entry to generate the identifier.

Windows registry modification verification

A method and system is provided by which unauthorized changes to the registry may be detected and that provides the capability to verify whether registry, or other system configuration data, changes that occur on a computer system are undesirable or related to possible malware attack before the changes become effective or are saved on the system. A method for verifying changes to system configuration data in a computer system includes generating an identifier representing an entry in the system configuration data, packaging the identifier, and sending the packaged identifier to a client for verification. The identifier may be generated by hashing the first portion of the entry and the second portion of the entry to generate the identifier, or by filtering the first portion of the entry and hashing the filtered first portion of the entry and the second portion of the entry to generate the identifier.

Growing community of inventors

Kitchener, Canada

Alessandro Faieta