IP Library Granted Patent US 11,720,682
Granted Patent B2
US 11,720,682 · App. 17/110,043 · Granted Aug 8, 2023

Systems and methods for bare-metal or pre-boot user-machine authentication, binding, and entitlement provisioning

Inventors: Carlton A. Andrews (Austin, TX); Joseph Kozlowski (Hutto, TX); Charles D. Robison (Buford, GA); David Konetski (Austin, TX); Nicholas D. Grobelny (Austin, TX)
Assignee: Dell Products, L.P.
G06F21/575G06F21/31G06F21/54G06F21/602
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,720,682
App. No.
17/110,043
Granted
Aug 8, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

Systems and methods for bare-metal or pre-boot user-machine authentication, binding, and entitlement provisioning are described. In some embodiments, a method may include: receiving, at a first portal managed by a manufacturer of an Information Handling System (IHS): (i) user credentials associated with a user of the IHS, and (ii) device identification associated with the IHS before the IHS is shipped to the user; selecting a customer of the manufacturer associated with the device identification; forwarding an indication of the user credentials to a second portal managed by the customer; and, in response to the second portal having successfully authenticated the user, establishing an identity session with the second portal; receiving, from the IHS, a request to initiate an entitlement sequence.

Claims (47)

1. An Information Handling System (IHS), comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution, cause the IHS to:

transmit, to a first portal managed by a manufacturer of the IHS: (i) user credentials associated with a user of the IHS that is different than the manufacturer of the IHS, and (ii) device identification associated with the IHS by the manufacturer prior to the IHS leaving the manufacturer's factory or control, wherein the first portal managed by the manufacturer is configured to:

(a) select a customer of the manufacturer associated with the device identification, wherein the customer is different from the user of the IHS and the manufacturer of the IHS;

(b) forward an indication of the user credentials associated with the user of the IHS to a second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer; and

(c) in response to the second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer having successfully authenticated the user of the IHS, establish an identity session with the second portal;

transmit, to the first portal, a request to initiate an entitlement sequence, wherein the first portal managed by the manufacturer is configured to verify the request against the identity session between the first portal managed by the manufacturer and the second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer; and

receive an asset as part of the entitlement sequence.

2. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the first portal enables access to an entitlement service managed by the manufacturer and wherein the second portal enables access to a user identification service managed by the customer.

3. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the user credentials comprise a username and password, and wherein the device identification comprises a service tag or a certificate-based cryptographic identity scheme.

4. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the identity session is configured by the customer to stay open for a selected amount of time.

5. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the entitlement sequence comprises a list of one or more assets to be delivered to the IHS.

6. The IHS of claim 5 , wherein to receive the asset as part of the entitlement sequence, the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to receive the asset through the first portal.

7. The IHS of claim 6 , wherein the asset comprises an Operating System (OS).

8. The IHS of claim 5 , wherein to receive the asset as part of the entitlement sequence, the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to:

receive, from the first portal, a redirection instruction to connect to a workspace orchestration service; and

in response to following the redirection instruction, receive the asset from the workspace orchestration service.

9. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the asset comprises a workspace definition.

10. The IHS of claim 9 , wherein the workspace definition comprises at least one of: a threat monitoring level, a threat detection level, a threat analytics level, a threat response level, a storage confidentiality level, a network confidentiality level, a memory confidentiality level, a display confidentiality level, a user authentication level, an Information Technology (IT) administration level, a regulatory compliance level, a local storage control level, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) access level, a graphics access level, an application usage level, or an application installation level.

11. The IHS of claim 9 , wherein the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to:

transmit, to the workspace orchestration service, context information;

receive, from the workspace orchestration service, one or more files or policies configured to enable a local management agent of the IHS to instantiate a workspace based upon the workspace definition, wherein the workspace orchestration service is configured to: (i) calculate a security target and a productivity target based upon the access request and the context information, and (ii) create the workspace definition based upon the security target and the productivity target; and

instantiate the workspace.

12. The IHS of claim 11 , wherein the security target is calculated by the workspace orchestration service based upon at least one of: a risk metric associated with a locale of the client IHS, a risk metric associated with a user of the client IHS, a risk metric associated with a network of the client IHS, a risk metric associated with hardware of the client IHS, a risk metric associated with a requested datafile, or a regulatory risk metric associated with the user, the locale, and the requested datafile, and wherein the productivity target is calculated by the workspace orchestration service based upon at least one of: a resource metric associated with a locale of the client IHS, a resource metric associated with a user of the client IHS, a resource metric associated with a network of the client IHS, a resource metric associated with hardware of the client IHS, or a resource metric associated with a storage system of a requested datafile.

13. A memory storage device having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by an Information Handling System (IHS), cause the IHS to:

transmit, to a first portal managed by a manufacturer of the IHS: (i) user credentials associated with a user of the IHS that is different than the manufacturer of the IHS, and (ii) device identification associated with the IHS by the manufacturer prior to the IHS having been received by the user, wherein the first portal managed by the manufacturer is configured to:

(a) select a customer of the manufacturer associated with the device identification, wherein the customer is different from the user of the IHS and the manufacturer of the IHS;

(b) forward an indication of the user credentials associated with the user of the IHS to a second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer; and

(c) in response to the second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer having successfully authenticated the user of the IHS, establish an identity session with the second portal; and

transmit, to the second portal, a request to initiate an entitlement sequence, wherein the second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer is configured to verify the request against the identity session between the first portal managed by the manufacturer and the second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer; and

receive an asset as part of the entitlement sequence.

14. The memory storage device of claim 13 , wherein the user credentials comprise a username and password, and wherein the device identification comprises a service tag or a certificate-based cryptographic identity.

15. The memory storage device of claim 13 , wherein the identity session is configured by the customer to stay open for a selected amount of time.

16. The memory storage device of claim 13 , wherein the asset comprises an Operating System (OS).

17. The memory storage device of claim 13 , wherein to receive the asset as part of the entitlement sequence, the program instructions, upon execution, further cause the IHS to:

receive, from the second portal, a redirection instruction to connect to a workspace orchestration service; and

in response to following the redirection instruction, receive the asset from the workspace orchestration service.

18. The memory storage device of claim 17 , wherein the asset comprises a workspace definition.

19. The memory storage device of claim 18 , wherein the workspace definition comprises at least one of: a threat monitoring level, a threat detection level, a threat analytics level, a threat response level, a storage confidentiality level, a network confidentiality level, a memory confidentiality level, a display confidentiality level, a user authentication level, an Information Technology (IT) administration level, a regulatory compliance level, a local storage control level, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) access level, a graphics access level, an application usage level, or an application installation level.

20. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a first portal managed by a manufacturer of an Information Handling System (IHS): (i) user credentials associated with a user of the IHS that is different than the manufacturer of the IHS, and (ii) device identification associated with the IHS before the IHS is shipped to the user;

selecting a customer of the manufacturer associated with the device identification, wherein the customer is different from the user of the IHS and the manufacturer of the IHS;

forwarding an indication of the user credentials associated with the user of the IHS to a second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer;

in response to the second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer having successfully authenticated the user of the IHS, establishing an identity session with the second portal;

receiving, from the IHS, a request to initiate an entitlement sequence, wherein the first portal managed by the manufacturer is configured to verify the request against the identity session between the first portal managed by the manufacturer and the second portal managed by the customer of the manufacturer; and

at least one of: (i) providing an asset to the IHS as part of the entitlement sequence; or (ii) redirecting the IHS to a workspace orchestration service configured to provide a workspace definition to the IHS.

Assignments (9)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (055479/0342) Recorded Jun 10, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
Reel/Frame 062021/0460 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (055479/0051) Recorded Jun 10, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
Reel/Frame 062021/0663 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (056136/0752) Recorded Jun 10, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
Reel/Frame 062021/0771 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST AT REEL 055408 FRAME 0697 Recorded Nov 2, 2021
From: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH
To: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 058001/0553 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 3, 2021
From: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 056136/0752 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 3, 2021
From: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 055479/0051 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 3, 2021
From: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 055479/0342 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Feb 25, 2021
From: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
To: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH
Reel/Frame 055408/0697 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 2, 2020
From: ANDREWS, CARLTON A.; KOZLOWSKI, JOSEPH; ROBISON, CHARLES D.; KONETSKI, DAVID; GROBELNY, NICHOLAS D.
To: DELL PRODUCTS, L.P.
Reel/Frame 054521/0658 →
Continuity (1)
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