US Patent 10321317 NFC-enhanced firmware security

Technologies are disclosed herein for near field communication (“NFC”) enhanced firmware security. Using an implementation of the technologies disclosed herein, an NFC card or an NFC-equipped mobile device can be utilized to access an NFC-equipped server computer. The server computer reads a login key from an NFC card or an NFC-equipped mobile device. Based upon the login key, a firmware executing on the server computer can determine whether a user is to have administrator access rights, non-administrator user access rights, or no access rights at all to a firmware setup menu provided by the server computer. Based upon the login key, the firmware executing in the NFC-equipped server computer can also identify an operating system to be booted by the server computer. In some configurations, an NFC-equipped mobile device contacts an authorization server to obtain the login key based upon a user's access credentials.