Abstract: Methods and devices for increasing or hardening the security of data stored in a storage device, such as a hard disk drive, are described. A storage device provides for increased or hardened security of data stored in hidden and non-hidden partitions of a storage medium in the device. An algorithm may be utilized for deriving a key that is used to encrypt or decrypt text before it is read from or written to the hard disk. The algorithm accepts as input a specific media location factor, such as an end address or start address of the block where the text is being read from or written to, and a secret key of the storage component. The output of the algorithm is a final key that may be used in the encryption and decryption process. Thus, in this manner, the final key is dependent on the location of the block where the data is being written or read, thereby making it more difficult to tamper with the data, which may be stored in a hidden or non-hidden partition of a hard disk.

Abstract: Methods and systems for regulating services provided by a first computing entity, such as a server, to a second computing entity, such as a client are described. A first entity receives a request for a service from a second entity over a network. The first entity determines whether the second entity has a trusted agent by examining an attestation report from the second entity. The first entity transmits a message to the second entity. The trusted agent on the second entity may receive the message. A response is created at the second computing entity and received at the first entity. The first entity then provides the service to the second entity. The first entity may transmit an attestation challenge to the second entity and in response receives an attestation report from the second entity.

Abstract: Improved verification techniques for verification of the integrity of various computing environments and/or computing systems are disclosed. Verifiable representative data can effectively represent verifiable content of a computing environment, thereby allowing the integrity of the computing environment to be verified based on the verifiable representative data instead of the content being represented. Verifiable representative data can effectively include selected portions of the content (e.g., selected content which may be of general and/or specific security interest) and can be generally smaller than the verifiable content it represents. As such, it may generally be more efficient to use the verifiable representative data instead of the content it represents. Verifiable representative data can also be organized. By way of example, unstructured content (e.g., a configuration file written in text) can be effectively transformed based on a scheme (e.g.

Abstract: Improved techniques for controlling access to accessible components of computing environments are disclosed. The techniques, among other things, can be used to provide Mandatory Access Control (MAC) mechanisms for mobile and embedded systems. One or more accessible components (e.g., accessible resources) which a component may attempt to access are determined so that one or more access permissions can be stored in a manner that they can be obtained if the component attempts to access the one or more accessible components, thereby allowing access to the one or more accessible components to be determined based on access permissions that are readily available. Generally, access permissions can be identified and stored in anticipation of need. Access permissions can be identified, for example, based on the likelihood of use, or all possible access permissions can be determined and stored. A safe (e.g.

Abstract: Techniques for managing and protecting computing environments are disclosed. A safe computing environment can be provided for ensuring the safety and/or management of a device. The safe computing environment can be secured by a safe component that isolates and protects it from unsafe computing environments which may also be operating. As a result, various security and management activities can be securely performed from a safe computing environment. A safe computing environment can, for example, be provided on a device as a safe virtual computing environment (e.g., a safe virtual machine) protected by a safe virtual computing monitor (e.g., a safe virtual machine monitor) from one or more other virtual computing environments that are not known or not believed to be safe for the device. It will also be appreciated that the safe components can, for example, be provided as trusted components for a device.

Abstract: Techniques for detecting unauthorized use (e.g., malicious attacks) of the computing systems (e.g., computing devices) are disclosed. Unauthorized use can be detected based on patterns of use (e.g., behavioral patterns of use typically associated with a human being) of the computing systems. Acceptable behavioral pattern data can be generated for a computing system by monitoring the use of a support system (e.g., an operating system, a virtual environment) operating on the computing system. For example, a plurality of system support provider components of a support system (e.g., system calls, device drivers) can be monitored in order to generate the acceptable behavioral pattern data in a form which effectively defines an acceptable pattern of use (usage pattern) for the monitored system support provider components, thereby allowing detection of unauthorized use of a computing system by detecting any deviation from the acceptable pattern of use of the monitored system support provider components.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a multi-stakeholder environment is controlled by first assigning a first domain to a first stakeholder and a second domain to a second stakeholder. Then a first access policy is defined for the first domain and access is restricted to the first domain for the second stakeholder according to the first access policy. In another embodiment, an access request is handled in a multi-stakeholder environment by first receiving parameters forwarded by hooks in system call functions in a kernel of the multi-stakeholder environment, wherein the parameters contain information about a first stakeholder requesting access to a domain corresponding to a second stakeholder. Then it is determined whether to allow the first stakeholder to access the domain based at least partially upon security settings corresponding to the domain.

Abstract: In an embodiment of the present invention, the ability for a user or process to set or modify affinities is restricted in order to method for control a multi-processor environment. This may be accomplished by using a reference monitor that controls a process' capability to retrieve and set its or another process' affinity. This aids in the prevention of security breaches.

Abstract: Techniques for execution of commands securely within a storage device are disclosed. Integrity of a command interpreter is verified before allowing it to execute commands within the storage device. The integrity of the commands can also be checked to safeguard against various threats including, for example, malicious attacks, unintentional errors and defects that can adversely affect stored content and execution. Error recovery techniques can be used to reconstruct the command interpreter and/or commands that are found to be defective. In addition, secure techniques can be used to obtain trusted versions of the command interpreter and/or commands from an authenticated external source.

Abstract: Techniques for protecting content to ensure its use in a trusted environment are disclosed. The stored content is protected against harmful and/or defective host (or hosted) environments. A trusted security component provided for a device can verify the internal integrity of the stored content and the host before it allows the content to come in contact with the host. As a counter part, a trusted security component provided for the host can verify and attest to the integrity of the host and/or specific host computing environment that can be provided for the content stored in the device. The trusted security component provided for a device effectively verify the host integrity based on the information attested to by the trusted security component provided for the host. If the trusted security component trusts the host, it allows the trusted host to provide a trusted host computing environment trusted to be safe for the content stored in the device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, cryptographic transformation of a message is performed by first performing a table initiation phase to populate a data structure. Then, a first random number multiplied by a public key is added to each value in the data structure, in modulo of a second random number multiplied by the public key. Then an exponentiation phase is performed, wherein each modular multiplication and square operation in the exponentiation phase is performed in modulo of the second random number multiplied by the public key, producing a result. Then the result of the exponentiation phase is reduced in modulo of the public key. The introduction of the random numbers aids in the prevention of potential security breaches from the deduction of operands in the table initiation phase by malicious individuals.

Abstract: In one embodiment, cryptographic transformation of a message is performed by first performing a table initiation phase. This may be accomplished by creating a permutation of an order of powers and then performing a table initiation phase using a part of a key and the permuted order of powers to populate a data structure.

Abstract: In one embodiment, cryptographic transformation of a message is performed by first performing a table initiation phase. Then an exponentiation phase is performed, wherein the exponentiation phase includes two or more parsing steps, wherein each of the parsing steps includes parsing a part of a cryptographic key into a window of size n, wherein n is a difficult to predict number.