Program version enforcement using a certificate

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that upon execution cause a controller to:

• store a target program representation in a storage medium, the target program representation comprising program version information identifying a program version for a program of an electronic part in an electronic device;
• obtain a certificate issued by a certificate authority, the certificate separate from the target program representation and comprising a program version enforcement information element (IE) to indicate whether program version enforcement is to be applied using the target program representation;
• check the program version enforcement IE in the certificate to determine whether the program version enforcement is to be applied, wherein the program version enforcement IE if set to a first value indicates that the program version enforcement is not to be applied using the target program representation, and the program version enforcement IE if set to a second value indicates that the program version enforcement is to be applied using the target program representation;
• and
• based on determining from the certificate that the program version enforcement is to be applied responsive to the program version enforcement IE in the certificate being set to the second value, enforce application of the program version of the program identified by the program version information to the electronic part.

A method comprising:

• storing, by a controller, a target program representation in a storage medium, the target program representation comprising program version information identifying a program version for a program of an electronic part in an electronic device;
• obtaining, by the controller, a certificate issued by a certificate authority, the certificate separate from the target program representation and comprising a program version enforcement information element (IE) to indicate whether program version enforcement is to be applied using the target program representation;
• checking, by the controller, the program version enforcement IE in the certificate to determine whether the program version enforcement is to be applied, wherein the program version enforcement IE if set to a first value indicates that the program version enforcement is not to be applied using the target program representation, and the program version enforcement IE if set to a second value indicates that the program version enforcement is to be applied using the target program representation;
• and
• based on determining from the certificate that the program version enforcement is to be applied responsive to the program version enforcement IE in the certificate being set to the second value,
• determining, by the controller, whether an installed version of the program for the electronic part is consistent with the program version of the program identified by the program version information, and
• based on determining that the installed version of the program for the electronic part is not consistent with the program version of the program identified by the program version information, replacing, by the controller, the installed version of the program with the program version of the program identified by the program version information.