Detecting software misconfiguration at a remote machine

• US 10,218,574 B1
• Filed: 09/15/2017
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Palantir Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Palantir Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Knudsen, Jason, Brockington-Hill, Christopher, Lach, Jacek, Washburn, Kawai
• Primary Examiner(s): Madamba, Glenford J
• Application Number:
  US15/705,442
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• Field of Search: 709221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0873 Checking configuration conflicts between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to detecting software misconfiguration at a remote machine. A control server stores, in a data repository, a plurality of antipatterns, each antipattern relating to a misconfiguration of a remote computer system. The control server accesses data of the remote computer system. The control server runs the plurality of antipatterns on the data of the remote computer system to determine one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system. The control server provides, as a digital transmission, an output representing the determined one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

accessing, from a data repository, a plurality of antipatterns, each antipattern relating to a possible misconfiguration of a remote computer system, each antipattern including software that searches the remote compute system for a misconfiguration, a performance problem or a security issue and returns an output representing the misconfiguration, the performance problem or the security issue discovered at the remote computer system;

accessing data of the remote computer system;

running the plurality of antipatterns on the data of the remote computer system to determine one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system; and

providing, as a digital transmission to at least a second data repository and an administrator client device, an additional output representing the determined one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system, wherein the additional output representing the determined one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system is stored in the second data repository, and wherein the additional output causes display, at the administrator client device, of an antipattern summary interface, the antipattern summary interface indicating a first number of hosts, including the remote computer system, to which a given antipattern from the plurality of antipatterns is applicable and a second number of hosts impacted by the determined one or more misconfigurations.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data of the remote computer system comprises one or more of:

configuration files, log files, and system kernel settings.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each antipattern maps the data of the remote computer system to a numeric status code, and wherein the additional output includes the numeric status codes.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein each antipattern comprises python code to detect the one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the python code comprises operating system-level commands passed via a python subprocess module.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the additional output comprises a notification to a user of the remote computer system.

7. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

receiving, from a user of the remote computer system, a new antipattern; and

storing the new antipattern in the data repository.

8. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

remediating the one or more antipatterns.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein each antipattern comprises a script that reviews configuration files, log files, or system kernel settings of the remote computer system.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

accessing, from a data repository, a plurality of antipatterns, each antipattern relating to a possible misconfiguration of a remote computer system, each antipattern including software that searches the remote compute system for a misconfiguration, a performance problem or a security issue and returns an output representing the misconfiguration, the performance problem or the security issue discovered at the remote computer system;

accessing data of the remote computer system;

running the plurality of antipatterns on the data of the remote computer system to determine one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system; and

providing, as a digital transmission to at least a second data repository and an administrator client device, an additional output representing the determined one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system, wherein the additional output representing the determined one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system is stored in the second data repository, and wherein the additional output causes display, at the administrator client device, of an antipattern summary interface, the antipattern summary interface indicating a first number of hosts, including the remote computer system, to which a given antipattern from the plurality of antipatterns is applicable and a second number of hosts impacted by the determined one or more misconfigurations.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the data of the remote computer system comprises one or more of:

configuration files, log files, and system kernel settings.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein each antipattern maps the data of the remote computer system to a numeric status code, and wherein the additional output includes the numeric status codes.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein each antipattern comprises python code to detect the misconfiguration of the remote computer system.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the python code comprises operating system-level commands passed via a python subprocess module.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, the operations further comprising:

receiving, from a user of the remote computer system, a new antipattern; and

storing the new antipattern in the data repository.

16. A method comprising:

accessing, from a data repository, a plurality of antipatterns, each antipattern relating to a possible misconfiguration of a remote computer system, each antipattern including software that searches the remote compute system for a misconfiguration, a performance problem or a security issue and returns an output representing the misconfiguration, the performance problem or the security issue discovered at the remote computer system;

accessing data of the remote computer system;

running the plurality of antipatterns on the data of the remote computer system to determine one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system; and

providing, as a digital transmission to at least a second data repository and an administrator client device, an additional output representing the determined one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system, wherein the additional output representing the determined one or more misconfigurations of the remote computer system is stored in the second data repository, and wherein the additional output causes display, at the administrator client device, of an antipattern summary interface, the antipattern summary interface indicating a first number of hosts, including the remote computer system, to which a given antipattern from the plurality of antipatterns is applicable and a second number of hosts impacted by the determined one or more misconfigurations.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the data of the remote computer system comprises one or more of:

configuration files, log files, and system kernel settings.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein each antipattern maps the data of the remote computer system to a numeric status code, and wherein the additional output includes the numeric status codes.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein each antipattern comprises python code to detect the misconfiguration of the remote computer system.