US 12,003,652 B2
Geographic restrictions for information handling systems
Marshal F. Savage, Austin, TX (US); Jason Matthew Young, Round Rock, TX (US); and Mukund P. Khatri, Austin, TX (US)
Assigned to Dell Products, L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed by Dell Products, L.P., Round Rock, TX (US)
Filed on Oct. 22, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/508,942.
Prior Publication US 2023/0125588 A1, Apr. 27, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 9/32 (2006.01); G01S 19/14 (2010.01); H04L 67/52 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 9/3263 (2013.01) [G01S 19/14 (2013.01); H04L 67/52 (2022.05)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for enforcing geographic restrictions on the operation of an IHS (Information Handling System), the method comprising:
upon initialization of the IHS, retrieving an inventory certificate uploaded to the IHS during factory provisioning of the IHS, wherein the inventory certificate specifies a plurality of allowed geographic locations at which the IHS is operational, and wherein the inventory certificate is a public key identity certificate generated by an embedded controller of the IHS in response to a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) generated by the IHS during the factory provisioning of the IHS;
halting further initialization of the IHS by the embedded controller until a location of the IHS can be determined and compared to the geographic locations from the inventory certificate;
determining a location of the IHS;
when the location of the IHS is not at an allowed geographic location specified in the inventory certificate, rendering the IHS non-operational by the embedded controller; and
when the location of the IHS is at an allowed geographic location specified in the inventory certificate, enabling further initialization of the IHS.