Method and System for Identifying an Operating System Running on a Computer System

• US 20080005370A1
• Filed: 05/23/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: CHU, Simon C., DONOVAN, Peter T., KERN, Eric R., CHRISTNER, Robert K., BOLAN, Joseph E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,574,534 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

Identifying an operating system running on a computer system. In one aspect of the invention, an enumeration pattern is collected, the enumeration pattern describing an enumeration of a device that has been performed between the device and the operating system running on a host computer system. The type of the operating system running on the host computer system is identified based on the collected enumeration pattern.

Claims

1. A method for identifying an operating system running on a computer, the method comprising:

collecting an enumeration pattern describing an enumeration of a device that has been performed between the device and the operating system running on a host computer system; and

identifying the type of the operating system running on the host computer system based on the collected enumeration pattern.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the type of the operating system is based on a comparison of the collected enumeration pattern with known enumeration patterns associated with different types of operating systems.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the comparison of the collected enumeration pattern with known enumeration patterns includes comparing a plurality of steps of the collected enumeration pattern to the same steps in the known enumeration patterns, such that the known enumeration pattern having the highest correlation of steps to the collected enumeration pattern is selected for identifying the type of operating system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the type of the operating system includes inputting the collected enumeration pattern to a neural network that has been trained with known enumeration patterns associated with different types of operating systems.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the enumeration includes the host computer system requesting and receiving enumeration information from the device and providing commands to the device.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the enumeration pattern is collected from a virtual device engine that emulates the operation of the device to at least one host computer system.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the device communicates with the host computer using any of the standard protocols including USB, SCSI, and IDE.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the identifying the type of the operating system includes identifying a version of the operating system.

9. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium including program instructions to be implemented by a computer and for identifying an operating system running on a computer, the program instructions for:

collecting an enumeration pattern describing an enumeration of a device that has been performed between the device and the operating system running on a host computer system; and

identifying the type of the operating system running on the host computer system based on the collected enumeration pattern.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein identifying the type of the operating system is based on a comparison of the collected enumeration pattern with known enumeration patterns associated with different types of operating systems.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the comparison of the collected enumeration pattern with known enumeration patterns includes comparing a plurality of steps of the collected enumeration pattern to the same steps in the known enumeration patterns, such that the known enumeration pattern having the highest correlation of steps to the collected enumeration pattern is selected for identifying the type of operating system.

12. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein identifying the type of the operating system includes inputting the collected enumeration pattern to a neural network that has been trained with known enumeration patterns associated with different types of operating systems.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the enumeration pattern is collected from a virtual device engine that emulates the operation of the device to at least one host computer system.

14. An apparatus for identifying an operating system running on a computer, the apparatus comprising:

a device interface operative to perform an enumeration of a device for the operating system running on a host computer system in communication with the device; and

an operating system detection engine in communication with the device interface and operative to receive from the device interface an enumeration pattern describing the enumeration, wherein the operating system detection engine is operative to identify the type of operating system running on the host computer system based on the received enumeration information.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the operating system detection engine identifies the type of operating system based on a comparison of the received enumeration pattern with known enumeration patterns associated with different types of operating systems.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the operating system detection engine compares a plurality of steps of the received enumeration pattern to the same steps in the known enumeration patterns, such that the known enumeration pattern having the highest correlation of steps to the collected enumeration pattern is selected for identifying the type of operating system.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the device interface includes a virtual device engine coupled to the operating system detection engine and which is operative to emulate the device to the host computer system and provide the enumeration information to the operating system detection engine.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the virtual device engine is operative to receive information from at least one additional host computer system connected to the device interface.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the operating system detection engine and virtual device engine are provided in a management module operative to receive information from a plurality of host computer systems and connected to a plurality of devices.

20. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the device is a USB device and wherein the device interface includes a serial interface engine and digital software logic, wherein the serial interface engine is coupled to a USB host controller of the host computer system.