Patent ID: 8151262

Claim:
A machine-implemented method comprising: executing a start sequence of an information handling system that includes a hardware based trust platform module (TPM), wherein a plurality of platform configuration registers (PCRs) stored in the TPM are initialized to a predetermined state when the start sequence commences; during the execution of the start sequence, loading one or more software modules in a memory of the information handling system, wherein one of the software modules is a hypervisor; calculating one or more PCR values resulting from the loading of the hypervisor; comparing the calculated PCR values that resulted from the loading of the hypervisor with one or more expected PCR values, the comparison indicating whether the loading of the hypervisor places the information handling system in a trusted state; in response to the comparison revealing that the calculated PCR values that resulted from the loading of the hypervisor match the expected PCR values, indicating that the information handling system is in the trusted state, creating a virtual environment under the hypervisor, wherein the creation of the virtual environment includes loading a virtual machine and creating a virtual trust platform module (vTPM) used by the virtual machine; and in response to the comparison revealing that the calculated PCR values that resulted from the loading of the hypervisor do not match the expected PCR values, indicating that the information handling system is in an untrusted state, inhibiting the creation of the virtual environment.