System and method for delivering external data to a process running on a virtual machine

• US 20050198488A1
• Filed: 12/07/2004
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Actividentity Australia Pty LT (Assa Abloy AB)
• Original Assignee: Actividentity Australia Pty LT (Assa Abloy AB)
• Inventors: Sandland, Carl, Herscovitch, Matthew Patrick, Dingwall, Timothy Brian
• Granted Patent: US 8,695,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32

Abstract

In a computer system including a computer terminal, an operating system installed on said computer terminal, a virtual machine running on the operating system, a server communicatively coupled to the computer terminal and a process including instructions that when executed on a virtual machine define a user interface; a Single Sign On (SSO) system comprising a database of authentication credentials accessible to the computer terminal, and instructions executable on the virtual machine operative to: obtain user interface state data from the process; query the virtual machine to obtain component data related to the user interface state data; and manipulate the component data so as to deliver authentication credentials to the process.

Claims

1. In a computer system including a computer terminal, an operating system installed on said computer terminal, a virtual machine running on the operating system, a server communicatively coupled to the computer terminal and a process including instructions that when executed on a virtual machine define a user interface;

a Single Sign On (SSO) system comprising;

a database of authentication credentials accessible to the computer terminal, and

instructions executable on the virtual machine operative to;

obtain user interface state data from the process;

query the virtual machine to obtain component data related to the user interface state data; and

manipulate the component data so as to deliver authentication credentials to the process.

2. The SSO system claimed in claim 1 wherein the process comprises a Java applet stored at the server, which applet includes the instructions to define a user interface.

3. The SSO system claimed in claim 2 wherein the computer system further includes a browser installed on said computer terminal operative to download the Java applet from the server and run the Java applet on the virtual machine.

4. The SSO system claimed in claim 1 wherein the process comprises a Java application, which Java application includes the instructions to define a user interface.

5. A method for delivering external data to a process running on a virtual machine, said virtual machine running on an operating system, the method comprising the steps of:

executing instructions on the virtual machine that obtain state data related to the process;

querying the virtual machine to obtain component data related to the state data; and

manipulating the component data to deliver the external data to the process;

wherein the process call out an external process to retrieve information carried by the external data.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the information carried by the external data includes a login script or authentication credentials.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein, in order to retrieve the correct information, the code running within the virtual machine determines a unique identifier for itself.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the unique identifier for identifying the application running in the virtual machine is selected from one of:

the class name of top level window,

the thread group of the top level window,

the textual information provided by the accessibility API comprising a name allocated by the API to the top level window, and

the title of the top level window.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the process implements a user interface and the state data is user interface state data.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface (GUI) and the user interface state data preferably indicates the creation of a top level window in the GUI.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein the instructions utilise an applications program interface (API) running on the virtual machine to obtain the state data.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the API is an accessibility API is employed to hook the virtual machine process.

13. The method of claim 5 wherein the process is either an applet or an application.

14. Computer readable media carrying program code for carrying out the method defined in claim 5.