Patent ID: 7669242

Claim:
A method comprising: executing a presence verifier from a secure execution environment of a system, wherein the secure execution environment comprises at least one of a service processor, a virtual partition, an embedded microcontroller, and a system management mode; performing an integrity check for an agent via the presence verifier, wherein the agent is loaded from a host memory of the system into a main memory of the system, the main memory of the system is external to the secure execution environment, and the integrity check includes verifying the image of the agent in main memory matches the image of the agent in the host memory of the system; registering the agent with the presence verifier in response to the agent passing the integrity check; using the presence verifier to monitor a signal communicated from the agent, the signal to include information identifying the agent; analyzing the signal to determine the agent is present and operational; verifying the signal originates from the agent registered with the presence verifier based on the identification information included in the signal; and initiating a remediation action in response to a failure of one of the integrity check, the determination that the agent is present and operational, and the verification that the signal originates from the agent.