Patent ID: 8549592

Claim:
A method in a data processing system for establishing virtual endorsement credentials, said data processing system including a hardware trusted platform module (TPM), said method comprising: storing a platform signing key (PSK) in said hardware TPM, but said hardware TPM not including an endorsement key (EK) or endorsement credential (EC); generating a plurality of logical partitions in said system; for each of said plurality of logical partitions, dynamically generating a different virtual TPM; generating, by each of said virtual TPMs, a virtual endorsement key (vEK); storing each of said vEKs only within a corresponding virtual TPM; generating, by each of said virtual TPMs, a virtual endorsement credential (vEC), for use by said corresponding logical partitions, by signing each of said vEKs using said PSK received from said hardware TPM; and each of said vECs being generated within said data processing system without accessing a trusted third party that is external to said data processing system.