Patent ID: 8332635

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: executing a secure kernel in a data processing system, wherein the secure kernel includes a plurality of sensitive portions of data comprising: a private key that is specific to the particular copy of secure kernel, at least one pre-defined public key known to the secure kernel that corresponds to the private key, one or more cryptographic keys, and a plurality of instructions for performing one or more operations deemed to be privileged; in response to determining a first kernel extension should be loaded, decrypting the kernel extension using the private key, wherein the first kernel extension performs a task and is associated with a first public key that was used to sign the first kernel extension; validating and verifying an integrity of the first kernel extension using the first public key; and in response to determining the kernel extension passes the validating and verifying processes: selecting a first subset of the plurality of sensitive portions of data of the secure kernel to be deleted based on the first public key, wherein the first subset is not needed by the kernel extension to perform the task; deleting the first subset; and transferring control to the first kernel extension subsequent to the deleting.