Baseboard management controller-based security operations for hot plug capable devices

An apparatus comprising:

• a hot plug connector comprising a serial bus communication path and an out-of-band communication path separate from the serial bus communication path;
• a connector controller coupled to the hot plug connector to control whether a removable storage device installed in the hot plug connector is enabled to communicate over the serial bus communication path;
• and
• a baseboard management controller external to the removable storage device to:
• in response to the removable storage device being installed in the hot plug connector, communicate with the removable storage device using the out-of-band communication path;
• based on the communication with the removable storage device, provide a credential to the removable storage device;
• and
• in response to providing the credential to the removable storage device, communicate a command to the connector controller to enable the removable storage device to communicate using the serial bus communication path.

An apparatus comprising:

• a serial bus;
• a side channel;
• a hot plug capable connector coupled to the serial bus and the side channel, wherein the hot plug capable connector receives a signal initially asserted when a removable device is installed in the hot plug capable connector to prevent a serial bus interface of the removable device from communicating with the serial bus;
• a central processing unit (CPU) to execute operating system instructions to communicate with the removable device using the serial bus;
• and
• a baseboard management controller separate from the removable device and the CPU to:
• in response to the removable device being installed in the hot plug capable connector, communicate with the removable device using the side channel to authenticate the removable device;
• and
• in response to authenticating the removable device, cause de-assertion of the signal to allow the serial bus interface of the removable device to communicate using the serial bus.