In an example, a system and method are described for providing trusted updaters and trusted processes. An updater may be subject to a whitelist of files that it, and any child processes, are allowed to modify. But trust inheritance may break across reboots and over interprocess communication. Thus, it is desirable to provide a system and method to maintain trust across such events. In the case of a trusted installer, inheritance may be maintained by cross referencing a digital certificate to a workflow grid. In the case of updater processes, trust may be maintained by using a combination of digital certificates that are part of a trust chain and a unique identifier for each trust chain workflow.