US 9,520,998 B2Granted

System and method for recovery key management

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsViswanathan Balakrishnan, Santosh Bhadri, Mukund P. Khatri, Kevin T. Marks, Narayanan Subramaniam, Venkatesan Balakrishnan

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Abstract

A system and method for managing the recovery key of a computer system is disclosed. The computer system includes a security layer, and the recovery key is stored locally to a memory location on the computer system, including, as examples, flash memory on the motherboard of the computer system or a USB port on the computer system. In operation, when it becomes necessary for the computer system to authenticate the recovery key, the recovery key may be retrieved from the local memory. The retrieval and storage of the recovery key may be managed by a remote administrator. The recovery key may be stored in a hidden partition in the storage location, and the recovery key may be cryptographically wrapped to add an additional layer of security.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A method for providing security to the configuration of an information handling system, comprising:

providing a security layer,
monitoring a hardware configuration of the information handling system by the security layer, wherein the security layer includes a device within the information handling system that authenticates a key;
storing the key to a storage location local to the information handling system;
determining, by a BIOS, if a configuration change to the information handling system has occurred by comparing a first hash code to a second hash code, wherein the first hash code represents a previous hardware or software configuration of the information handling system and the second hash code represents a current hardware or software configuration of the information handling system;
setting a flag in the BIOS indicative of the configuration change;
requesting, by the security layer, a new key based, at least in part, on the flag;
and
booting the information handling system based, at least in part, on an authentication of the new key.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/528,758Filed 30 Oct 2014 · continuation
Priority: 16 Apr 2009
Published: US 2015/0058640 A126 Feb 2015
Granted: 13 Dec 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

H04L 9/0816
Key distribution or management, e.g. generation, sharing or updating, of cryptographic keys or passwords: key establishment, i.e. cryptographic…
G06F 11/1402
Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations: saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
G06F 21/575
Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates…:…
H04L 9/0894
Key distribution or management, e.g. generation, sharing or updating, of cryptographic keys or passwords: escrow, recovery or storing of secret…

Family

Application12/424,787Parent of this continuation · filed 16 Apr 2009
US 2015/0058640 A1Pre-grant publication · published 26 Feb 2015
US 8,923,520 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2010/0202617 A1Published application
US 9,520,998 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

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