Patent ID: 7752674

Claim:
A method comprising: under control of one or more processors executing computer-executable instructions: establishing one or more paths of components that are to process and render digital data, individual components supporting one or more of an authenticable interface and a authentication proxy interface; creating a first authenticator to authenticate individual components of the one or more paths; calling, with the first authenticator, one or more authenticable interfaces on one or more respective components to ascertain components downstream from the components that are called, wherein the authenticable interface returns one or more of: a list of authentication interfaces of downstream components, a list of authentication proxy interfaces of downstream components, a list of dependent components on which to verify signatures, or key session number for the chain of authenticators; authenticating one or more downstream components using the first authenticator; for those components that support an authentication proxy interface and an authentication interface, creating a separate authenticator; establishing an encrypted channel between the first authenticator and one or more of the separate authenticators; and authenticating additional components using the separate authenticator.