Patent ID: 7120802

Claim:
A method including the following: at a certification authority, receiving an executable program generated by a party independent of the certification authority; at the certification authority, testing the executable program and, based on the results of the testing, generating a specification describing the actual operation of the executable program; at the certification authority, generating a digital certificate certifying that the executable program operates in the manner described in the specification; receiving the executable program at a user site; receiving the digital certificate at the user site; at the user site, evaluating the digital certificate to determine if the digital certificate is associated with the executable program; at the user site, evaluating the digital certificate to determine whether to execute the executable program; and at the user site, executing the executable program, the execution being dependent on the evaluation of the digital certificate, and in which the user site includes a tamper-resistant execution space, the tamper-resistant execution space being operable to protect against tampering, by a user at the user site, with the performance of said step of evaluating the digital certificate to determine whether to execute the executable program.