A smart device, connected device, Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc. is configured with an embedded certificate authority. The embedded certificate authority generates a compound certificate that is signed at least by a manufacturer certificate securely stored on the device. The compound certificate includes a representation of a state of the device, which is based on one or more measurements of code executable on the device. The compound certificate may be used by an external device communicating with the smart device to determine whether the device is in a trusted state. Because the compound certificate is chained to a manufacturer certificate, the external device can communicate with the manufacturer (or an employed party) to determine whether the state of the device should be trusted.