Patent ID: 8844024

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for using tiered signing certificates to manage the behavior of executables, the method comprising: identifying, at a computing device that comprises at least one hardware processor, an executable file; identifying, at the computing device, a signing certificate associated with the executable file; decrypting, at the computing device using a public key provided by a certificate authority, the signing certificate associated with the executable file to obtain a privilege level assigned to the executable file by the certificate authority that identifies at least one privileged operation that the executable file is allowed to perform on the computing device; managing, at the computing device, privileged operations performed on the computing device by the executable file in accordance with the privilege level assigned to the executable file by the certificate authority by: preventing the executable file from performing privileged operations that exceed the privilege level assigned to the executable file by the certificate authority; allowing the executable file to perform privileged operations that do not exceed the privilege level assigned to the executable file by the certificate authority.