Information handling systems and related methods for establishing trust between boot firmware and applications based on user physical presence verification

An information handling system (IHS), comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium storing an operating system (OS) and at least one application;
• a computer readable memory storing boot firmware including boot services and runtime services;
• at least one processing device coupled to the computer readable storage medium and to the computer readable memory, wherein the at least one processing device is configure to execute:
• a first set of program instructions included within the boot services of the boot firmware to interact with a user of the IHS and receive user input via an input device of the IHS during a pre-boot phase of the boot firmware;
• and
• a second set of program instructions included within the runtime services of the boot firmware to verify a physical presence of the user during OS runtime, wherein the verification of the physical presence of the user is based on at least a subset of the user input received during the pre-boot phase;
• wherein the at least one application includes a third set of program instructions, which is executed by the at least one processing device during OS runtime to:
• generate an application token unique to that application;
• and
• provide the application token to the boot firmware.

A method for generating a trust relationship between boot firmware and at least one application stored within an information handling system (IHS), the method comprising:

• providing an application token unique to the at least one application to the boot firmware;
• storing the application token;
• subsequently rebooting the IHS to enter a pre-boot phase of the boot firmware, wherein during the pre-boot phase the method further comprises:
• prompting the user to provide user input;
• and
• receiving the user input via an input device of the IHS;
• and
• verifying a physical presence of the user based on at least a subset of the user input received during the pre-boot phase.