An example hardware accelerator for a computer system includes a programmable device and further includes kernel logic configured in a programmable fabric of the programmable device, and an intellectual property (IP) checker circuit in the kernel logic. The IP checker circuit is configured to obtain a device identifier (ID) of the programmable device and a signed whitelist, the signed whitelist including a list of device IDs and a signature, verify the signature of the signed whitelist, compare the device ID against the list of device IDs, and selectively assert or deassert an enable of the kernel logic in response to presence or absence, respectively, of the device ID in the list of device IDs and verification of the signature.