Preventing access to misplugged devices by a service processor

An approach is provided for preventing access to mis=plugged devices by a service processor (SP). The SP retrieves an expected device identifier of a device associated with a hot-plug event. The hot-plug event was received in response to the device being connected to a selected port of a service processor, and the port is one many ports included in the SP. The SP sends a request for a device identifier via the port and actual device identifier is received from the device. The device is validated by comparing the expected device identifier with the actual device identifier. If the identifiers match, a link between the SP and the device is maintained. On the other hand, if the identifiers do not match, the link between the SP and the device is terminated or otherwise inhibited.