Securing operating system configuration using hardware

A system, comprising:

• a user interface terminal;
• a computing system physically coupled to the user interface terminal and having a memory and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:
• receive, in a booted state of the computing system, a request to load an operating system configuration;
• store in the memory a digital key to authenticate the operating system configuration;
• restart the computing system;
• in response to restarting the computing system and while the computing system is in a pre-boot state:
• authenticate the operating system configuration using the digital key;
• receive, via the user interface terminal physically coupled to the computing system, confirmation of the request to boot the operating system configuration;
• and
• boot the operating system configuration in response to the authenticating and in response to receiving the confirmation.

A computer program product for securely booting a computing system, the computer program product including a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the computing system to:

• receive, in a booted state of a computing system, a request to load an operating system configuration;
• store a digital key to authenticate the operating system configuration;
• restart the computing system;
• in response to restarting the computing system and while the computing system is in a pre-boot state:
• authenticate the operating system configuration using the digital key;
• receive, via a local user interface terminal physically coupled to the computing system, confirmation of the request to boot the requested operating system configuration;
• and
• boot the operating system configuration in response to the authenticating and in response to receiving the confirmation.