Patent ID: 7392415

Claim:
A method comprising storing unencrypted secrets in a memory of a system; setting a first flag in a secrets store to indicate that the memory contains unencrypted secrets; setting a second flag in a sleep enable store to request a sleep controller to cause the system to enter one of a plurality of sleep states by powering down at least one of a plurality of system components; determining which of the plurality of sleep states to enter based on a sleep type store, wherein the type of sleep state determines which of the plurality of system components to power down and the wake-up latency of the system; detecting a sleep attack, determining that the memory contains unencrypted secrets based on the secrets store; and before entering a sleep state, in response to determining that the memory contains unencrypted secrets based on the secrets store, invoking a sleep attack response that protects the unencrypted secrets from the sleep attack, the sleep attack response including one or more from the group of generating a system reset event, generating a system halt event, generating a system shutdown event, generating a system power off event, powering circuitry used to protect the unencrypted secrets during the sleep state, or erasing the memory.