Automated test equipment (ATE) is provided with a plurality of hardware components, at least two of which provide a common test feature. The ATE is also provided with program code to access a number of security tokens, each token of which grants rights to use one or more test features without specifying a particular hardware component on which the test features are to be enabled. If a number of security tokens granting rights to use the common test feature are available, the program code enables the common test feature on user-selected ones of the hardware components that provide the common test feature, as permitted by the number of security tokens. Methods for provisioning and using the security tokens to enable the ATE are also disclosed.