Patent ID: 7174465

Claim:
A method for securely updating one or more system attributes of a completely manufactured client computer having BIOS, comprising the steps of: signing a public key of a secure server with a private key of said BIOS prior to completion of manufacturing the client computer to create an encrypted public key of the secure server and an embedded private key of the BIOS, the encrypted public key and embedded private key stored at the secure server, receiving at the secure server a request packet transmitted from the client computer, the requested packet comprising requesting system attribute modification for the client computer, encrypting the received request packet at the secure server using a private key of the secure server to create an encrypted packet, transmitting a return packet to the client computer, the return packet comprising the encrypted packet, the server's public key, and server instructions, decrypting the encrypted public key of the secure server at the client computer, decrypting the encrypted packet using the server's public key at the client computer, comparing the request packet of the return packet with a copy of the request packet transmitted to the secure server, and executing the server instructions at the client computer in response to the request packet of the return packet and the copy of the request packet transmitted to the secure server being identical, wherein executing the server instructions modifies the client computer's boot block to update the client computer's system attributes.