Which technology prevents unwanted processes from executing during the boot operation?

Secure Boot is a security standard that ensures only trusted software is loaded during the boot process of a computer. When Secure Boot is enabled, the firmware checks the digital signatures of the firmware and the operating system before allowing them to run. This prevents unauthorized or malicious code from executing at boot time, effectively safeguarding the system from boot-level attacks, such as rootkits or bootkits, which can compromise the system prior to the loading of the operating system.

In the context of the other options, Encrypted Key Management deals with securing cryptographic keys, typically for data protection, rather than controlling the boot process. Application Controls focus on managing which applications can install or run on a system, while a Host-Based Firewall monitors and filters incoming and outgoing traffic but does not prevent processes from running during the boot sequence. Therefore, Secure Boot is specifically designed to address the problem of unauthorized processes during system startup.