Patent ID: 7003672

Claim:
A method of authenticating software, comprising: (a) selecting software to run on a computer; (b) computing a first hash of a copy of object code associated with the software; (c) retrieving a first encrypted security value, said first encrypted security value being an encrypted hash of another copy of object code associated with the software; (d) decrypting the first encrypted security value to produce a first security value; (e) comparing the first hash from (b) to the first security value from (d); (f) computing a second hash of a combination of the first hash and the copy of the object code from (b); (g) retrieving a second encrypted security value, said second encrypted security value being an encrypted hash of a combination of the first security value and said another copy of the object code; (h) decrypting the second encrypted security value to produce a second security value; and (i) comparing the second hash to the second security value.