Providing a secure hardware identifier (HWID) for use in connection with digital rights management (DRM) system

A computing device for receiving a piece of digital content and a digital license therefor and for rendering the content in accordance with the license, the device having an accessible secure hardware identifier (HWID) thereon, the license for being bound to the secure HWID such that the license is inoperative on another device having a different secure HWID, the device comprising:

• a public key (PU-OEM) from a certifying authority with a signature from the certifying authority;
• an operating system having multiple individual components including an executable kernel, a plurality of drivers, and a driver table with a pointer to each driver, each of at least some of the individual components being accompanied by a signature based on the component and signed by a private key (PR-OEM) corresponding to (PU-OEM);
• a HWID component for obtaining the secure HWID from the device and forwarding the secure HWID to the operating system of the device upon the operating system requesting same;
• and
• a HWID driver as an addition to the operating system, the HWID driver for communicating with the HWID component to obtain and forward the secure HWID, the driver table having a reference to the HWID driver therein.

A method in combination with a computing device for receiving a piece of digital content and a digital license therefor and for rendering the content in accordance with the license, the device having an accessible secure hardware identifier (HWID) thereon, the license for being bound to the secure HWID such that the license is inoperative on another device having a different secure HWID, the device comprising:

• a public key (PU-OEM) from a certifying authority with a signature from the certifying authority;
• an operating system having multiple individual components including an executable kernel, a plurality of drivers, and a driver table with a pointer to each driver, each of at least some of the individual components being accompanied by a signature based on the component and signed by a private key (PR-OEM) corresponding to (PU-OEM);
• a HWID component for obtaining the secure HWID from the device and forwarding the secure HWID to the operating system of the device upon the operating system requesting same;
• a HWID driver as an addition to the operating system, the HWID driver for communicating with the HWID component to obtain and forward the secure HWID, the driver table having a reference to the HWID driver therein;
• and
• a trusted component obtained for the device from a trusted component authority, the trusted component constructed to include the secure HWID therein in a secure manner,
• the method for verifying the trusted component and comprising:
• obtaining (PU-OEM) with the signature thereof and verifying the signature;
• verifying each signed component of the operating system by verifying the signature thereof based on the obtained (PU-OEM);
• examining the driver table to locate the HWID driver;
• verifying that the HWID driver contains a pointer back to an address inside the kernel;
• If the HWID driver and the operating system verify:
• calling to the operating system to obtain the secure HWID from the HWID component and return same to the trusted component, the kernel receiving the call and re-directing same to the HWID driver by way of the driver table, the HWID driver obtaining the secure HWID by way of the HWID component and returning same to the trusted component;
• and
• verifying that the returned HWID matches the HWID included in the trusted component.