The disclosed technology is generally directed to a secure boot mechanism for a multi-core system. In some examples, multiple execution environments may be sequentially booted according to a chain of trust that corresponds to the defense-in-depth hierarchy. A first stage of the secure boot may be based on the hardware root of trust of the multi-core processor. Subsequent stages may be based upon the trust in the previous stages. In some examples, if any stage is determined to be compromised, then the secure boot ceases, and neither the stage determined to be compromised nor any subsequent stages are booted.