American Megatrends, Inc.

American Megatrends International, LLC

William Gysin

Kai Yau

Eric Law

A system may be configured to receive via a user interface a user-initiated prompt to begin start-up of a computer system firmware via access to a firmware start-up utility. The system may also generate a request for user authentication, and detect a private key for user authentication. The system may also determine whether the private key corresponds to a public key previously registered with the computer system firmware, and initiate, when the private key corresponds to the public key, completion of the start-up of the computer system firmware and allowance of operation of the computer system firmware via access to the firmware start-up utility. When the private key does not correspond to the public key, the system may prevent at least one aspect of an operation associated with the start-up of the computer system firmware.

Use of security key to enable firmware features

A firmware setup utility executing on a computing system is configured to display a two-dimensional barcode, such as a Quick Response ('QR') code. The two-dimensional barcode may be encoded with data about the computing system and/or a hyperlink specifying a location from which additional information may be retrieved. Another device, such as a mobile device, may be utilized to scan the two-dimensional barcode, decode the information contained therein, and present the data. If a hyperlink is encoded in the two-dimensional barcode, the device may retrieve the additional information from the specified location and present the retrieved data.

Accessing information from a firmware using two-dimensional barcodes

A login interface provided by a firmware setup utility is configured to display a two-dimensional barcode, such as a quick response ('QR') code. The barcode is scanned by a mobile device configured to retrieve a timestamp encrypted within the barcode. The mobile device creates a passcode by re-encrypting the timestamp using a firmware setup password and a master key. The passcode is provided to the firmware setup utility, which retrieves the timestamp and compares it to a stored timestamp. If the timestamp values match, access to the firmware setup utility is permitted.

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Jefferson, GA, United States of America

William Gysin