Patent ID: 7949874

Claim:
A method for providing a secure firmware operating environment, comprising: upon detecting a new component coupled to a first device, determining whether the new component includes an option read only memory, wherein the option read only memory is a memory component that comprises operating code that may be called by the firmware of the first device, and wherein the operating code is associated with a different device than the first device; determining whether code contained within the option read only memory is authorized to be executed; upon determining that the code contained within the option read only memory is authorized to be executed, executing the code contained within the option read only memory; and upon determining that the code contained within the option read only memory is not authorized to be executed, performing: (a) initially preventing the code contained within the option read only memory from being executed, (b) requesting permission, from a user, to add a hash value of the code to a list of authorized option read only memory images, and (c) upon receiving permission, from the user, to add the hash value to the list of authorized option read only memory images, executing the code contained within the option read only memory.