Protected computing environment

• US 20060242406A1
• Filed: 04/27/2005
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kuhn, Reid Joseph, Kishan, Arun Upadhyaya, Dunbar, Geoffrey T., Alkove, James M., Debique, Kirt A., Ma, Ming, Knowlton, Chadd B., Barde, Sumedh N., Schwartz, Jonathan D., Sherwani, Adil Ahmed, Upadhyay, Chaitanya D., Grigorovitch, Alexandre Vicktorovich, Grier, Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/116,598
• Publication Number:
  US 20060242406A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/164
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1064 Restricting content processing at operating system level
• 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: H04L 2209/603 Digital right managament [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

A method of establishing a protected environment within a computing device including validating a kernel component loaded into a kernel of the computing device, establishing a security state for the kernel based on the validation, creating a secure process and loading a software component into the secure process, periodically checking the security state of the kernel, and notifying the secure process when the security state of the kernel has changed.

Claims

1. A method of establishing a protected environment within a computing device comprising:

validating a kernel component loaded into a kernel of the computing device;

establishing a security state for the kernel based on the validation;

creating a secure process and loading a software component into the secure process;

periodically checking the security state of the kernel; and

notifying the secure process when the security state of the kernel has changed.

2. The method of establishing a protected environment within a computing device of claim 1, in which validating a kernel component loaded into a kernel of the computing device further comprises setting a kernel secure flag.

3. The method of establishing a protected environment within a computing device of claim 2 in which periodically checking the security state of the kernel further comprises checking the kernel secure flag.

4. The method of establishing a protected environment within a computing device of claim 1, in which the kernel component includes a loader.

5. The method of establishing a protected environment within a computing device of claim 1, in which the software component is a trusted media component.

6. A method of loading kernel components to create a secure computing environment comprising:

setting a kernel secure flag to a true state;

checking to determine if a debugger is present in an operating system; and

checking to see if a debug credential associated with the debugger is present.

7. The method of loading kernel components to create a secure computing environment of claim 6, further comprising, setting the kernel secure flag to a false state if a debug credential is not present.

8. The method of loading kernel components to create a secure computing environment of claim 6, further comprising:

determining that there is another component to load;

validating a signature of the component;

verifying that a certificate is valid;

determining if the signature is on a revocation list; and

determining if the certificate in on the revocation list.

9. The method of loading kernel components to create a secure computing environment of claim 8, further comprising:

determining if the signature is acceptable for use;

determining if the is acceptable for use; and

loading the component into the kernel.

10. A method of creating a protected environment comprising:

creating a protected environment for loading a component;

checking the validity of a signature;

checking the validity of a certificate;

checking to see if the signature is in a revocation list;

checking to see if the certificate is in the revocation list;

checking to see that the signature is acceptable for use

checking to see that a certificate is acceptable for use;

setting a kernel secure flag; and

loading the component into the protected environment.

11. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 10, in which the kernel secure flag is set to a false state if checking the validity of the signature fails.

12. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 10, in which the kernel secure flag is set to a false state if checking the validity of a certificate fails.

13. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 10, in which the kernel secure flag is set to a false state if checking to see if the certificate is in the revocation list fails.

14. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 10, in which the kernel secure flag is set to a false state if checking to see that the signature is acceptable for use fails.

15. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 10, in which the kernel secure flag is set to a false state if checking to see that the certificate is acceptable for use fails.

16. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 10, in which the component is a portion of a media application.

17. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 10, further comprising periodically checking a security state of the protected environment.

18. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 17, in which periodically checking the security state of the protected environment further comprises checking the kernel secure flag.

19. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 18, in which periodically checking the security state of the protected environment further comprises submitting a call of a calling process to a kernel.

20. The method of creating a protected environment for loading a component of claim 19, in which the calling process to the kernel is checked to determine if it is secure.