A method and system for booting up a computer system in a secure fashion is disclosed.
The method and system comprise determining the presence of a security feature element
during an initialization of the computer system wherein the security feature element
includes a public key and a corresponding private key, storing a portion of the
public key in a nonvolatile memory within the computer system if the security feature
element is present and utilizing an algorithm to determine the presence of the
security feature element prior to a subsequent boot-up of the computer system.
Through the use of the present invention, a computer system is capable of being
booted up whereby the computer system determines if a security feature element
was previously present in the system. If a security feature element was previously
present in the computer system, any stored keys, along with the secrets that they
protect, are prevented from being compromised. It is also an object of the present
invention to preclude the system from compromising any keys and associated secrets
if a security feature element in the system was not previously present in the system.
