Verification of a provisioned state of a platform

A method comprising:

• receiving, at an authentication module, a software stack of a platform, wherein the software stack comprises a plurality of software elements, and wherein the software stack is uniquely determined;
• measuring, at the authentication module, the plurality of software elements of the software stack to generate respective hashes of the plurality of software elements;
• generating, at the authentication module, a creation hash and a creation ticket, the creation hash being based on a value produced by combining the respective hashes of the plurality of software elements;
• storing the creation hash in a secure memory of the authentication module;
• sending the creation ticket from the authentication module to the platform in which the software stack is to execute;
• and
• after the sending of the creation ticket from the authentication module to the platform:
• receiving, at the authentication module from the platform, a command to certify the creation ticket for verifying a state of the platform,
• in response to the command, retrieving the creation hash from the secure memory and certifying the creation ticket based on the retrieved creation hash,
• after certifying the creation ticket, generating, at the authentication module, a certified structure comprising the creation hash, and signing the certified structure, and
• sending the signed certified structure from the authentication module to the platform to verify the state of the platform.

A system comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• an authentication module comprising:
• a memory;
• a storage to store machine-readable instructions executable by the authentication module to:
• receive a software stack of a platform, wherein the software stack comprises a plurality of software elements, and wherein the software stack is uniquely determined;
• measure the plurality of software elements of the software stack to generate respective hashes of the plurality of software elements;
• generate a creation hash and a creation ticket, the creation hash being based on a value produced by combining the respective hashes of the plurality of software elements;
• store the creation hash in the memory of the authentication module;
• send the creation ticket from the authentication module to the at least one processor on which the software stack is to execute;
• and
• after the sending of the creation ticket from the authentication module to the at least one processor:
• receive, at the authentication module from the at least one processor, a command to certify the creation ticket for verifying a state of the platform,
• in response to the command, retrieve the creation hash from the memory and certify the creation ticket based on the retrieved creation hash,
• after certifying the creation ticket, generate, at the authentication module, a certified structure comprising the creation hash, and sign the certified structure, and
• send the signed certified structure from the authentication module to the at least one processor,
• wherein the at least one processor is to verify the state of the platform based on the signed certified structure.