Patent ID: 8276199

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving at a first debug port of a data processing device a first authentication request, the first authentication request being received prior to a second debug port of the data processing device being authenticated to access a first resource of the data processing device; in response to receiving the first authentication request, initiating a first authentication operation at an authentication module, wherein the first authentication operation authenticates access to the first resource by the first debug port and by the second debug port, wherein the first authentication operation comprises: sending a first challenge from the authentication module to the first debug port; receiving a first response at the authentication module from the first debug port, the first response responsive to the first challenge; providing first information from the authentication module to authenticate access to the first resource by the first debug port and by the second debug port, in response to determining that the first response is a first valid response; and providing the first information from the authentication module to authenticate access to the first resource by the first debug port and by the second debug port in response to determining that the first response is a second valid response; receiving at the second debug port of the data processing device a second authentication request, the second authentication request being received prior to the first debug port being authenticated to access the first resource; and in response to receiving the second authentication request, initiating a second authentication operation at the authentication module, wherein the second authentication operation authenticates access to the first resource by the first debug port and by the second debug port.