Patent ID: 6684326
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
A method for performing an authenticated boot of a computer system in a networked computing environment, the method comprising:(a) integrating boot manager services into a power on self test (POST) routine; (b) providing a digital signature for a selected operating system when the POST routine transfers control to a basic input/output system (BIOS) routine, including reading an initial program load device list of available boot devices during the BIOS routine, determining whether a selected device of the available boot devices contains an image of an operating system, proceeding to a next device until the image is located, determining whether the image is bootable, proceeding to the next device until the image is bootable, and retrieving a boot record for the image, signing the boot record using a private key for the computer system, and sending the signed boot record to a server system; and (c) authorizing booting with the selected operating system through authentication by the server system of the digital signature.