International Business Machines Corporation

Jose J P Perez

David N Mackintosh

James William Walker

David Haikney

A method for attesting a component of a system during a boot process. The method includes steps of: verifying that the system is in a trusted state; in response to verifying that the system is in a trusted state, requesting an enrollment of the system wherein the requesting step further comprises the step of: retrieving enrollment data associated with the system; retrieving current input data associated with the component of the system; comparing the current input data against the enrollment data in order to determine whether the system can retain its trusted state; wherein in response to the comparing step, if the current input data matches the enrollment data, the system retains its trusted state; and accepting the trusted state until receipt of a notification, from the system having a retained trusted state, of an update to the system.

Attesting a component of a system during a boot process

An attestation technique is provided for processing attestation data associated with a plurality of data processing systems. A first data processing system is operable for receiving a request for attestation from a requester. In response to receiving the request, the first data processing system is further operable for retrieving a list of one or more children, wherein the one or more children include the second data processing system; retrieving and storing attestation data associated with each of the one or more children; retrieving and storing attestation data associated with the first data processing system; and sending to the requester a concatenated response containing the attestation data associated with the first data processing system and the child attestation data associated with the one or more children.

Processing attestation data associated with a plurality of data processing systems

A method, apparatus and program product for attesting a component of a system during a boot process. The method comprises the steps of: verifying that the system is in a trusted state; in response to verifying that the system is in a trusted state, requesting an enrollment of the system wherein the requesting step further comprises the step of: retrieving enrollment data associated with the system; retrieving current input data associated with the component of the system; comparing the current input data against the enrollment data in order to determine whether the system can retain its trusted state; wherein in response to the comparing step, if the current input data matches the enrollment data, the system retains its trusted state; and accepting the trusted state until receipt of a notification, from the system having a retained trusted state, of an update to the system.

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Manchester, United Kingdom

Jose J P Perez