US 11,750,372 B2
BIOS/OS key provisioning system
Wei Liu, Austin, TX (US); and Murali Manohar Shanmugam, Cedar Park, TX (US)
Assigned to Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed by Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed on Jan. 7, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/143,374.
Prior Publication US 2022/0216984 A1, Jul. 7, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 15/177 (2006.01); G06F 9/00 (2006.01); G06F 9/24 (2006.01); H04L 9/08 (2006.01); G06F 21/60 (2013.01); G06F 9/4401 (2018.01)
CPC H04L 9/0819 (2013.01) [G06F 21/606 (2013.01); H04L 9/0891 (2013.01); H04L 9/0894 (2013.01); G06F 9/4401 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A Basic Input/Output System (BIOS)/Operating System (OS) key provisioning system, comprising:
a Non-Volatile Memory express (NVMe) storage device that is coupled to a network; and
a server device that is coupled to the NVMe storage device via the network, wherein the server device includes:
an operating system engine; and
a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) engine that is coupled to the operating system engine and that is configured, subsequent to a current initialization of the server device and prior to an immediately subsequent initialization of the server device, to:
retrieve a key from a key storage subsystem;
store the key in a BIOS memory subsystem;
receive, from the operating system engine, a current key request that identifies the key;
determine, in response to receiving the current key request, that the key stored in the BIOS memory system has not previously be accessed subsequent to the current initialization and prior to the subsequent initialization;
provide, in response to determining that the key stored in the BIOS memory system has not previously been accessed subsequent to the current initialization and prior to the subsequent initialization, the key from the BIOS memory subsystem to the operating system; and
prevent the key from being provided from the BIOS memory subsystem in response to any subsequent key request.