Dell Products Inc.

Dell & Products L.p.

Joseph Caisse

Bradley K Goodman

Kirk Hutchinson

Eric Joseph Bruno

Himabindu Tummala

Daniel E Cummins

Stav Sapir

Mahesh Babu Ramaiah

Kirk Alan Hutchinson

Ching-Yun Chao

Maxim Balin

Muzhar S Khokhar

James Daniel Harms

Ashutosh Kumar

Antony Prabakaran Jayaveeran

Jerome A Korthals

Jenna Tartaglino

Kumaresan Pachiappan

Methods and systems for managing endpoint devices are disclosed. The endpoint devices may be managed by verifying blueprints and authors of blueprints prior to use. To verify the blueprints, the blueprints may be normalized to reduce variability in blueprint content. Once normalized, static content may be identified. Signatures from the blueprints may be used to attempt to verify the integrity of the static content. If successfully verified, then both the static and dynamic content from the blueprints may be trusted. The authority of authors of the blueprints may be verified by attempt to establish chains of delegation of authority to the authors. If successfully verified, then the blueprints may be used to update operation of the endpoint devices.

Self-attesting secure blueprints

Systems, devices, and methods for managing data processing systems are disclosed. The data processing systems may be capable of operating in various manners. To manage the data processing systems, onboarding processes may be performed to conform the operation of the data processing systems to meet the expectations of owners of the data processing systems. To manage security policies of the data processing systems during onboarding, ownership vouchers may be generated to provide data necessary for onboarding that defines security policies, hardware policies, and ownership of the data processing systems. The ownership voucher may be deployed to data processing systems during onboarding to reduce the likelihood of undesired use and/or interactions with the data processing systems.

Methods for dynamic platform security configuration

A method for securing a data processing system includes identifying an occurrence of a security event for an operation of the data processing system. Based on the occurrence, the method further includes: identifying a security requirement for the security event; performing at least two diverse cryptographic operations based on the security requirement and a cryptographic data package to obtain at least two cryptographic results, the at least two cryptographic results being provided by respective diverse cryptographic operations of the two diverse cryptographic operations; and performing an action set based on the at least two cryptographic results to service the operation of the data processing system.

System and method for cryptographic security through process diversity

Methods and systems for managing onboarding of data processing systems are disclosed. Data processing systems added to a distributed environment may require onboarding. To onboard the data processing systems, vouchers are required that delegate authority to an entity to onboard the data processing systems. An orchestrator may be an entity responsible for onboarding the data processing systems when they become available. To onboard the data processing systems without intervention by a user, the orchestrator may provide a trusted token to a voucher management service and may obtain the voucher in response. The trusted token may be previously generated through an interaction between the user with authority over the data processing systems and the voucher management service. The trusted token may be provided by the user to the orchestrator to indicate that the orchestrator is trusted by the user to onboard data processing systems associated with the user.

Onboarding data processing systems using trusted tokens

Methods and systems for manage operation of endpoint devices are disclosed. To manage the operation of endpoint devices, management systems may monitor and update the state of the endpoint devices. To manage incongruencies among state updates and the states of the endpoint devices, the endpoint devices may implement a state management model that vests authority over the true states of the endpoint devices in the endpoint devices. Consequently, the endpoint devices may resolve incongruencies by rejecting some state updates that do not reflect the true states of the endpoint devices.

State management with distributed control plane

Methods and systems for securing endpoint devices are disclosed. Overtime, the functionality of endpoint devices may be modified as new software is developed. To secure endpoint devices, software images of the new software may be verified prior to execution. Information usable to verify the software images may be stored in a database. A set of rules may be used to verify the trustworthiness of the software images based on the content of the database. Another set of rules may be used to verify the content of the database.

Use of image signing in endpoint device operation management

Methods and systems for managing endpoint devices are disclosed. The endpoint devices may be managed by verifying portions of customized blueprints prior to use. To verify the portions of the customized blueprints, the portions of the customized blueprints may be normalized to reduce variability in blueprint content. Once normalized, static content may be identified. Signatures from the portions of the customized blueprints may be used to attempt to verify the integrity of integrity data for the static content. If successfully verified, then the integrity may be used to attempt to verify the integrity of the static content. If the integrity of the static content is verified, then both the static and dynamic content from the portion of the blueprints may be used to update the operation of the endpoint devices.

Multi-component blueprint digital signatures

An endpoint node of a multiple node environment includes a storage and a processor. The storage stores a public key for an owner of the endpoint node. The processor receives a declarative request. The declarative request includes a signed certificate and a job to be performed in the endpoint node. In response to reception of the declarative request, the processor determines that the signed certificate is valid, and begins execution of the job associated with the declarative request. In response to a trigger event, the processor re-checks the signed certificate, and determines whether the signed certificate has been revoked. In response to the signed certificate being revoked, the processor performs an action indicated in a policy in the storage.

Certificate based security for declarative operations

Methods and systems for verifying component loadouts are disclosed. During onboarding and after onboarding, the hardware component loadouts of endpoint devices may be checked to identify whether component drift has occurred. The checks may be performed by comparing actual loadouts to expected loadouts. The expected loadouts may be identified using loadout established when an endpoint device is manufactured, as well as authorized changes in the loadouts that may be made by various owners. The initial loadout and authorized changes may be documented usings cryptographically verifiable data structures that form chains back to a root of trust.

System and method for hardware component validation for onboarding

Methods and systems for managing secrets are disclosed. To manage secrets, backups of the secrets may be obtained to facilitate future recoveries of the secrets. While backed up, the secrets may be secured with a security model. The security model may prescribe how entities that manage the backups are to operate, how encryption and decryption keys are maintained, and how various copies of the backed up secrets are to be distributed to manage potential loss of various backups of the secrets. When access to a secret is lost, a recovery may be performed using a corresponding backup of the secret.

Control system management for secret backup in distributed systems

Methods and systems for securing endpoint devices are disclosed. To secure the endpoint devices, a flexible system for verifying authority may be used. The flexible system may allow data processing system in resource constrained environment to invoke the functionalities of other data processing systems. The flexible system may reduce the resources expended for invoking functionalities of other data processing systems by not requiring that requests for the invocation of the functionalities include sufficient verification for the other data processing systems to verify that the requestors have sufficient authority to invoke the functionalities of the other data processing systems.

Verifying authority in distributed systems

Methods and systems for managing secrets are disclosed. To manage secrets, backups of the secrets may be obtained to facilitate future recoveries of the secrets. While backed up, the secrets may be protected with a security model. The security model may prescribe how decryption keys are maintained, and how various copies of the backed up secrets are to be separated from the decryption keys for encrypted copies of the secrets. When access to a secret is lost, a recovery may be performed using a corresponding encrypted backup of the secret.

Secret management in distributed systems using passphrases

Methods and systems for managing secrets are disclosed. To manage secrets, backups of the secrets may be obtained to facilitate future recoveries of the secrets. The backups may be established by a manufacturer of a device. When ownership in the device is transferred to a new owner, the backups of the secrets may be added to an ownership used to complete onboarding of the device to systems managed by the new owner. The new owner may use the backups, in conjunction with decryption keys, to access and use the secrets in the event of the secrets becoming inaccessible.

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Burlington, MA, United States of America

Joseph Caisse