US 2016/0110532 A1 · User Authorization And Presence Detection In Isolation From Interference From And Control By Host Central Processing Unit And Operating System

Abstract

An embodiment may include circuitry to be included, at least in part, in a host. The host may include at least one host central processing unit (CPU) to execute, at least in part, at least one host operating system (OS). The circuitry may perform, at least in part, at least one operation in isolation both from interference from and control by the at least one host CPU and the at least one host OS. The at least one operation may include user authorization determination and user presence determination. The authorization determination may be in response, at least in part, to indication of physical presence of at least one user in proximity to the host. The user presence determination may determine, at least in part, whether, after the indication has been provided, the physical presence of the at least one user in the proximity to the host has ceased.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

a host central processing unit (CPU) to execute, at least in part, a host operating system (OS) and comprising one or more hardware partitions;
and
logic, implemented at least in part by hardware coupled to the host CPU, to perform at least one operation in isolation from the host CPU and the host OS, the at least one operation comprising:
a user authorization determination in response to an indication of a physical presence of a user within a geographic region of the system, to determine whether the user is authorized to issue a command to a security-related component of the system, wherein the indication is based at least in part on one or more of:
activation of a secure attestation key of the system by the user;
provision of a general purpose input/output (GPIO) signal to the logic;
detection of a physical token associated with the user;
and
detection of a physical characteristic of the user;
and
a user presence determination to determine whether, after the indication has been provided, the physical presence of the user within the geographic region has ceased.

8 more elements

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

determining, in logic, implemented at least in part by hardware coupled to a host central processing unit (CPU) of a system, in a manner isolated from the host CPU, in response to an indication of a physical presence of a user within a geographic region of the system, whether the user is authorized to issue a command to a security-related component of the system, wherein the indication is based at least in part on one or more of:
activation of a secure attestation key of the system by the user;
provision of a general purpose input/output (GPIO) signal to the logic;
detection of a physical token associated with the user;
and
detection of a physical characteristic of the user;
and
determining, after the indication has been provided, whether the physical presence of the user within the geographic region has ceased.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

User Authorization And Presence Detection In Isolation From Interference From And Control By Host Central Processing Unit And Operating System

Life of this patent

User Authorization And Presence Detection In Isolation From Interference From And Control By Host Central Processing Unit And Operating System

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20