Integration of social network information and network firewalls
First Claim
1. A method of operating a firewall associated with a computer comprising:
- monitoring an invitation sent to a first network endpoint inviting the first network endpoint to connect to a second network endpoint hosted on the computer;
extracting information from the invitation; and
establishing a firewall setting in accordance with information extracted from the invitation.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A firewall functions normally to pass data on open ports to a respective service or endpoint associated with an open port. Invitations may sent to from an internal endpoint to an external peer-to-peer network endpoint inviting a connection back to the internal endpoint. Rather than leave ports open in a firewall for such connections, an invitation manager analyzes the invitation and in real time programs an exception in the firewall based on the invitation. The exceptions may be programmed for a limited duration, based on the nature of the internal endpoint. When an authenticated connection is required, a public key or handle to a public key for the external endpoint may be passed to the firewall for use in establishing the connection.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of operating a firewall associated with a computer comprising:
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monitoring an invitation sent to a first network endpoint inviting the first network endpoint to connect to a second network endpoint hosted on the computer;
extracting information from the invitation; and
establishing a firewall setting in accordance with information extracted from the invitation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A firewall adapted to accept event-based programming comprising:
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an internal port for bidirectional transmission of data with a first endpoint on an internal network;
a network interface for bidirectional transmission of data with a second endpoint on an external network; and
a traffic manager, coupled between the network interface and the internal port, that controls data traffic from the network port to the internal port responsive to an invitation sent from the first endpoint to the second endpoint on the external network. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer programmed to support a network invitation function comprising:
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a network connection supporting traffic on a network;
a processor coupled to the network connection; and
a computer-readable medium storing computer executable modules comprising;
a first module for monitoring an invitation sent from the computer to an endpoint on the network;
a second module for determining to allow or block network traffic from the endpoint based on information in the invitation; and
a third module for setting a limited duration period for a response from the endpoint when the second module determines to allow the network traffic. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification