Patent ID: 7900059

Claim:
In a data processing system having a trusted platform module (TPM) with a plurality of hardware Platform Configuration Registers (PCRs), a method comprising: dynamically determining when a current process of the data processing system is a pre-defined process associated with an application running on the data processing system, which process has been pre-defined by the application as a process that should be monitored by an enhanced security mechanism of an extend TPM (ePCR) utility, wherein the dynamically determining includes autonomously monitoring applications running on the data processing system, and wherein the dynamically determining is performed by the extend TPM utility, which is a separate component from the applications; in response to determining that the current process is one of one or more pre-defined processes: the TPM automatically generating a Platform Configuration Register with extended semantics (ePCR) within a trusted, secure location of the data processing system, wherein said ePCR records only specific pre-defined measurements of software and hardware elements of an application, wherein the automatically generating is performed by the extend TPM utility, separate from the application, and wherein the ePCR functions independent of the hardware PCR; the TPM directly extending a measurement of the current process into the ePCR, wherein only measurements of processes associated with the pre-defined processes are extended into respective ePCRs, wherein the directly extending is performed by the extend TPM utility, separate from the application; and wherein other measurements not relevant to the one of one or more applications are ignored by the extend TPM utility.