Threat detection using a time-based cache of reputation information on an enterprise endpoint
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- detecting an action at an endpoint;
receiving, from a threat management facility on the endpoint, a reputation score for the action and a time to live for the action, the reputation score based on a description of the action including a process, executing on the endpoint, that took the action and an object programmatically associated with the process through the action;
caching the description and the reputation score in an event cache on the endpoint for a duration equal to the time to live;
accumulating a plurality of the descriptions and reputation scores that have not expired in the event cache;
expiring at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores by removing the at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores from the event cache after the time to live;
generating a threat detection when a pattern of the descriptions and reputation scores in the event cache indicate malicious software operating on the endpoint; and
communicating the threat detection to an analysis facility external to the endpoint.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Threat detection instrumentation is simplified by providing and updating labels for computing objects in a context-sensitive manner. This may include simple labeling schemes to distinguish between objects, e.g., trusted/untrusted processes or corporate/private data. This may also include more granular labeling schemes such as a three-tiered scheme that identifies a category (e.g., financial, e-mail, game), static threat detection attributes (e.g., signatures, hashes, API calls), and explicit identification (e.g., what a file or process calls itself). By tracking such data for various computing objects and correlating these labels to malware occurrences, rules can be written for distribution to endpoints to facilitate threat detection based on, e.g., interactions of labeled objects, changes to object labels, and so forth. In this manner, threat detection based on complex interactions of computing objects can be characterized in a platform independent manner and pre-processed on endpoints without requiring significant communications overhead with a remote threat management facility.
38 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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detecting an action at an endpoint; receiving, from a threat management facility on the endpoint, a reputation score for the action and a time to live for the action, the reputation score based on a description of the action including a process, executing on the endpoint, that took the action and an object programmatically associated with the process through the action; caching the description and the reputation score in an event cache on the endpoint for a duration equal to the time to live; accumulating a plurality of the descriptions and reputation scores that have not expired in the event cache; expiring at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores by removing the at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores from the event cache after the time to live; generating a threat detection when a pattern of the descriptions and reputation scores in the event cache indicate malicious software operating on the endpoint; and communicating the threat detection to an analysis facility external to the endpoint. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer program product comprising non-transitory computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps of:
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detecting an action at an endpoint; receiving, from a threat management facility on the endpoint, a reputation score for the action and a time to live for the action, the reputation score based on a description of the action including a process, executing on the endpoint, that took the action and an object programmatically associated with the process through the action; caching the description and the reputation score in an event cache on the endpoint for a duration equal to the time to live; accumulating a plurality of the descriptions and reputation scores that have not expired in the event cache; expiring at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores by removing the at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores from the event cache after the time to live; generating a threat detection when a pattern of the descriptions and reputation scores in the event cache indicate malicious software operating on the endpoint; and communicating the threat detection to an analysis facility external to the endpoint. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system comprising:
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a threat management facility configured to manage threats to an enterprise; and an endpoint of the enterprise having a memory and a processor, the memory storing an object, a process, and a threat management facility, and the processor configured to detect an action at the endpoint, to receive from the threat management facility a reputation score for the action and a time to live for the action, the reputation score based on a description of the action including a process and an object programmatically associated with the process through the action, to cache the description and the reputation score in an event cache on the endpoint for a duration equal to the time to live, to accumulate a plurality of the descriptions and reputation scores that have not expired in the event cache, to expire at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores by removing the at least one of the descriptions and reputation scores from the event cache after the time to live, to generate a threat detection for communication to an analysis facility external to the endpoint when a pattern of the descriptions and reputation scores in the event cache indicate malicious software operating on the endpoint. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification