Aggregating trust services for file transfer clients

• US 20050132227A1
• Filed: 07/23/2004
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sheldon, Michael G.Q., Reasor, Sterling M., Odins-Lucas, Zeke B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,467,409 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/50 Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

A trust evaluation framework exposes a common interface that may be used by file transfer clients in the process of retrieving or downloading a file. Using the common interface, each file transfer client can take advantage of multiple trust providers to evaluate the incoming file. In this way, disparate file transfer clients can present a common user experience for downloading or retrieving files. In addition, trust providers may be updated or added to the system without modifying the installed file transfer clients. This enables the user experience to be incrementally improved without updating the installed programs.

Claims

1. A system for evaluating an attachment, comprising:

a plurality of trust providers, at least one trust provider being configured to evaluate security characteristics of the attachment; and

a trust service manager configured to expose a common interface that enables access to the plurality of trust providers.

2. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of trust providers comprises an anti-virus utility.

3. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of trust providers comprises a digital signature verification utility.

4. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of trust providers comprises a utility to determine whether any applicable updates have been applied to the attachment.

5. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the common interface exposed by the trust service manager is configured to be called by a file transfer client.

6. The system recited in claim 5, wherein the file transfer client is a utility operative to retrieve the attachment from a remote location.

7. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the trust service manager further comprises a commitment component and a check policy component, the commitment component being operative to cause the attachment to be committed to a local device and to invoke the check policy component, the check policy component being configured to invoke one or more of the trust providers to evaluate the attachment prior to the attachment being committed by the commitment component.

8. The system recited in claim 7, wherein the commitment component is operative to cause the attachment to be launched on the local device.

9. The system recited in claim 8, wherein the commitment component is operative to cause the attachment to be saved to the local device.

10. The system recited in claim 7 wherein the check policy component is configured to determine an aggregate trust score for the attachment based on the evaluations of the trust providers.

11. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the trust service manager further comprises a prompt user component operative to prompt a user for a security determination if the aggregate trust score does not satisfy a security threshold.

12. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the trust service manager further comprises a commitment component and a check policy component, the commitment component being operative to cause the attachment to be committed to a local device and to invoke the check policy component, the check policy component being configured to invoke one or more of the trust providers to evaluate the attachment after the attachment has been committed by the commitment component.

13. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the commitment component is operative to cause the attachment to be launched on the local device.

14. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the commitment component is operative to cause the attachment to be saved to the local device.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for evaluating an attachment, the instructions comprising:

in response to a retrieval of the attachment being initiated, invoking a commitment component to cause the attachment to be committed to a local device; and

in response to the commitment component being invoked, causing at least one of a plurality of trust providers to be invoked to evaluate security characteristics of the attachment.

16. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 15, wherein the commitment component is operative to cause the attachment to be launched on the local device based on a satisfactory security evaluation.

17. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 15, wherein the commitment component is operative to cause the attachment to be saved to the local device based on a satisfactory security evaluation.

18. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 15, further comprising, generating a safety rating based on the evaluation of the security characteristics of the attachment.

19. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 18, further comprising, if the safety rating does not satisfy a security threshold, prompting a user for a security determination.

20. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 18, further comprising, if the safety rating satisfies a security threshold, committing the attachment on a local device without prompting a user.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components for evaluating an attachment, the components comprising:

a trust service manager that exposes;

a check policy interface operative to cause at least one trust provider to be invoked to evaluate the attachment;

an execute interface operative to cause the check policy interface to be invoked and to cause the attachment to be launched on a local device in response to a successful evaluation by the check policy interface; and

a save interface operative to cause the check policy interface to be invoked and to cause the attachment to be saved to the local device in response to successful evaluation by the check policy interface.

22. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 21, further comprising a prompt user interface operative to prompt a user to make a security determination about committing the attachment to a local device if the evaluation of the attachment does not satisfy a security threshold.

23. The computer-readable medium recited in claim 22, wherein the trust service manager further exposes a check attachment interface operative to cause at least one trust provider to be invoked to evaluate the attachment without committing the attachment to the local device.