Method and apparatus to allow remotely located computer programs and/or data to be accessed on a local computer in a secure, time-limited manner, with persistent caching

• US 20030056112A1
• Filed: 08/26/2002
• Published: 03/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Numecent Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Streamtheory Incorporated
• Inventors: DeVries, Jeffrey, Westerberg, Steig, Vinson, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,096,253 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols

Abstract

A file system driver program executes on a local computer. One or more agent procedures is configured to execute on the local computer to access file resources on behalf of a target process. A security process regulates the access of file resources by the agent procedures. The regulation of the agent procedure by the security procedure is based on a property that is unique to the target process.

Claims

1. A file system driver program executing on a local computer, comprising:

one or more agent procedures executing on the local computer to access file resources on behalf of a target process executing on the local computer; and

a security process executing on the local computer that regulates the access of the file resources by the agent procedures, wherein the security process regulates the access of the file resources by the agent procedures based on a property that is unique to the target process such that the agent procedures can access the file resources on behalf of the target process and the file resources are not visible to processes executing on the local computer other than the agent procedures and the target process.

2. The file system driver program of claim 1, and further comprising:

an identification process by which the agent procedures identify to the security process the property that is unique to the target process.

3. The file system driver program of claim 1, wherein:

the file system driver program is being executed by a client computer connected to a computer network, and

the at least one agent procedure is accessing at least some of the file resources across the network.

4. The file system driver program of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one agent procedures is accessing at least some of the file resources at the local computer.

5. The file system driver program of claim 4, wherein:

the file resources of the local computer include portions of the target process held in a local disk cache.

6. The file system driver program of claim 5, wherein the target process portions held in the local disk cache are in encrypted form, and wherein the security process includes a decryption procedure.

7. The file system driver program of claim 1, and including regulating access to the agent procedures themselves.

8. The file system driver program of claim 7, wherein the means to regulate access to the agent procedures includes at least one of:

password checking procedures;

execution counters; and

timeout procedures.

9. The file system driver program of claim 1, wherein:

at least a portion of the file resources to which access is regulated by the security process collectively constitute a target process, and

at least one client agent procedure reconfigures the environment of the local computer for execution of the target process.

10. The file system driver program of claim 9, wherein the client agent procedure includes causes the environment of the local computer to be reconfigured based on a reconfiguration database.

11. The file system driver program of claim 10, wherein the reconfiguration database is generated by steps of:

recording an original environment of a testbed computer system;

installing the target process on the testbed computer system;

determining differences between the original environment of the testbed computer system and the environment of the testbed computer system after installing the target process; and

generating the reconfiguration database based on the determined differences.

12. The file system driver program of claim 11, wherein the steps of generating the reconfiguration database further includes:

during the determining step, executing the target process on the test bed computer.

13. The file system driver program of claim 10, wherein the step of determining differences between the original environment and the environment after installing the target process includes determining a difference in files stored on the testbed computer system.

14. The file system driver program of claim 13, wherein the step of generating the reconfiguration database based on the determined differences includes recording in the reconfiguration database an indication of the files stored on the testbed computer system determined to be different.

15. The file system driver program of claim 9, wherein the local computer reconfigures the local computer environment also based on the environment of the local computer before executing the target process.

16. The file system driver program of claim 15, wherein the client agent procedure further restores the environment of the local computer to the environment of the local computer before executing the target process.

17. The file system driver program of claim 1, and further comprising:

communicating across a network with an administrative program executing on a computer other than the local computer.

18. The file system driver program of claim 7, and further comprising:

communicating across a network with an administrative program executing on a computer other than the local computer,

wherein regulating access to the access procedures themselves includes operating at least in part upon data received from the administrative program.

19. The file system driver program of claim 1, wherein the security process regulates access of the file resources by the agent procedures without regard to properties of the file resources themselves.

20. The file system driver program of claim 1, wherein:

during one access of the file resources by a particular agent procedure, a decision is made whether to grant access to the file resources by that agent procedure; and

subsequent accesses of the file resources by that agent procedure are based on the decision.