Patent ID: 8572404

Claim:
A system comprising: a multi-core computer processor; wherein one or more cores of the multi-core computer processor are configured as a security co-processor for the system and for other cores of the multi-core processor; wherein an operating system of the security co-processor is independent of operating systems of the other cores of the multi-core processor; wherein the security co-processor is configured to boot before the other cores and to enforce security policy on the other cores; wherein the security co-processor is configured to enforce one or more privilege levels including an untrusted level, a user level, a supervisor level, and a maintenance level; wherein the untrusted level comprises processing downloaded software code from a party other than an administrator of the system; wherein the user level comprises processing software code and data from a source approved by the administrator of the system; wherein the supervisor level comprises dynamic management of the system including changing operating system settings and changing hardware settings; and wherein the maintenance level comprises changes that affect the security of the system including processing kernel updates, updating keys for authentication, and privileged operations.