Patent ID: 7152243
Filing Date: 2006-12-19
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of manufacturing 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 method being performed to ensure that the device can access a secure hardware identifier (HWID) thereon, the license being bound to the secure HWID such that the license is inoperative on another device having a different secure HWID, the method comprising: receiving from a certifying authority a public key (PU-OEM) with a signature from the certifying authority; placing the (PU-OEM) with the signature in a memory of the device; receiving an operating system for the device, the 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 individual component being accompanied by a signature derived from the component; supplying the device with 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 the secure HWID; placing a HWID driver in the memory as an addition to the operating system, the HWID driver communicating with the HWID component to obtain and forward the secure HWID to the operating system, upon the operating system requesting the secure HWID; placing a reference to the HWID driver in the driver table; and for each signed component of the operating system: verify the signature of the component; removing the verified signature; and signing the component with a private key (PR-OEM) corresponding to the (PU-OEM); and placing the components of the operating system, including the components with the (PR-OEM) signatures, into the memory, whereby a trusted component obtained for the device from a trusted component authority and constructed to include the secure HWID therein in a secure manner is verified by obtaining the (PU-OEM) with the signature thereof and verifying the signature, verifying each signed component of the operating system by verifying the signature thereof with the obtained (PU-OEM), examining the driver table to locate the HWID driver, and verifying that the HWID driver contains a pointer back to an address inside the kernel, and if the HWID driver and the operating system verify, calling the operating system to obtain the secure HWID from the HWID component and returning the secure HWID 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 the secure HWID to the trusted component, and verifying that the returned secure HWID matches the secure HWID included in the trusted component.