Patent ID: 7783891

Claim:
A credential management system comprising: a processor executing computer executable instructions to provide: a desktop user environment; a credential user interface component operating on the desktop user environment that prompts a user to enter a secure attention sequence to thwart malicious applications locally executed that can perform spoofing or hooking attacks; a trusted proxy component that invokes a secure user interface component in a secure environment in response to the secure attention sequence substantially isolating from all user applications running on the desktop user environment, the secure user interface component prompts the user to enter a credential, the secure user interface component receiving the credential; a credential store that stores the credential; an authenticating component that authenticates identification information associated with a calling process as unchanged since being signed by a trusted authority, the secure user interface component displaying the authenticated identification information via the secure environment, the authenticated identification information being displayed comprising a verified name of the calling process and an indication that the calling process is unchanged since being signed by the trusted authority; and a credential manager that facilitates access to the credential store by a remote calling process dependent upon a user permission input made via the secure user interface component to balance network security with user convenience.