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Methods and systems for attaching an encrypted data partition during the startup of an operating system

  • US 10,402,206 B2
  • Filed: 09/21/2017
  • Issued: 09/03/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2017
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for attaching one or more encrypted data partitions of a data storage device during a startup process of an operating system of a computing system, the computing system comprising a processor, a memory and the data storage device, the method comprising:

  • monitoring a portion of the startup process of the operating system, the portion of the startup process performed by an execution of one or more user-mode processes;

    after monitoring the portion of the startup process performed by the execution of one or more user-mode processes and prior to execution of a service control manager (services.exe) process, pausing the startup process of the operating system, and attaching the one or more encrypted data partitions to the operating system by (i) retrieving one or more decryption keys corresponding to the one or more encrypted data partitions from a key management server communicatively coupled to the computing system, and (ii) transmitting the one or more retrieved decryption keys to a disk filter driver of the operating system, the disk filter driver providing the operating system with access to the one or more encrypted data partitions; and

    resuming the startup process of the operating system with the one or more encrypted data partitions attached to the operating system,wherein the monitored portion of the startup process includes one or more of a master session manager (manager smss.exe) process, an autochk.exe process, a session manager (smss.exe) process, a client/server runtime subsystem (csrss.exe) process, or a Windows initialization (wininit.exe) process.

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