Device, system, and method for processor-based data protection

Abstract

A device, system, and method for providing processor-based data protection on a mobile computing device includes accessing data stored in memory with a central processing unit of the mobile computing device and determining that the accessed data is encrypted data based on a data included in one or more control registers of the central processing unit. If the data is determined to be encrypted data, the central processing unit is to decrypt the encrypted data using a cryptographic key stored in the central processing unit. The encrypted data may also be stored on a drive of the mobile computing device. The encryption state of the data stored on the drive is maintained in a drive encryption table, which is used to update a memory page tables and the one or more control registers.

1 . A mobile computing device for processor-based data protection, the mobile computing device comprising:
 a memory including data stored therein in an encrypted state; and   a central processing unit including a cryptographic symmetric key stored therein and at least one control register, the central processing unit to (i) access the data stored in the memory, (ii) determine that the accessed data is encrypted based on a state of a flag of the at least one control register of the central processing unit, and (iii) decrypt the accessed data using the cryptographic symmetric key in response to determining that the access data is encrypted.