Apparatus and method for establishing trust

• US 20020026576A1
• Filed: 08/16/2001
• Published: 02/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Liqun, Pearson, Siani Lynne, Das-Purkayastha, Arindam
• Granted Patent: US 7,437,568 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/009 Trust
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2103 Challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect

Abstract

Computer apparatus comprising a receiver for receiving an integrity metric for a computer entity via a trusted device associated with the computer entity, the integrity metric having values for a plurality of characteristics associated with the computer entity; a controller for assigning a trust level to the computer entity from a plurality of trust levels, wherein the assigned trust level is based upon the value of at least one of the characteristics of the received integrity metric.

Claims

1. Computer apparatus comprising a receiver for receiving an integrity metric for a computer entity via a trusted device associated with the computer entity, the integrity metric having values for a plurality of characteristics associated with the computer entity;

a controller for assigning a trust level to the computer entity from a plurality of trust levels, wherein the assigned trust level is based upon the value of at least one of the characteristics of the received integrity metric.

2. Computer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the trusted device is arranged to acquire an integrity metric of the computer entity.

3. Computer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the trust level is determined by comparing the value of the at least one characteristics with a specified value.

4. Computer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of trust levels are determined base upon a plurality of specified values associated with a plurality of characteristics of a computer entity.

5. Computer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of trust levels are determined based upon a plurality of specified values associated with characteristics for a plurality of computer entities.

6. A method of assigning a trust level, the method comprising receiving an integrity metric for a computer entity via a trusted device associated with the computer entity, the integrity metric having values for a plurality of characteristics associated with the computer entity;

assigning a trust level to the computer entity from a plurality of trust levels, wherein the assigned trust level is based upon the value of at least one of the characteristics of the received integrity metric.