NETWORK ACCESSIBLE TRUSTED CODE

• US 20080155642A1
• Filed: 12/21/2006
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schackow, Stefan N., Kothari, Nikhil
• Granted Patent: US 8,006,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/51 at application loading time, e.g. accepting, rejecting, starting or inhibiting executable software based on integrity or source reliability

Abstract

In one embodiment, a computer system performs a method for accessing a trusted assembly from a virtualized location. A computer system detects receipt of a request to access an assembly. The address of the assembly is expressed in the request as a virtualized location. The computer system resolves the virtualized location to a physical location where the assembly is physically stored. The resolving includes accessing an information store that maintains the current physical location corresponding to the requested assembly'"'"'s virtualized location. The computer system determines whether the requested assembly qualifies as a trusted assembly by verifying that the assembly sufficiently complies with information encoded within the assembly. Lastly, upon determining that the requested assembly is trusted, the computer system accesses the requested assembly from the physical location.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method for accessing a trusted assembly from a virtualized location, the method comprising:

an act of detecting receipt of a request to access an assembly, wherein the address of the assembly is expressed in the request as a virtualized location;

an act of resolving the virtualized location to a physical location where the assembly is physically stored, the resolving comprising accessing an information store that maintains the current physical location corresponding to the requested assembly'"'"'s virtualized location;

an act of determining whether the requested assembly qualifies as a trusted assembly by verifying that the assembly sufficiently complies with information encoded within the assembly; and

upon determining that the requested assembly is trusted, an act of accessing the requested assembly from the physical location.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the virtualized location comprises of a plurality of physical locations.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises an act of dividing the requested assembly into one or more portions and storing each portion on at least one of the plurality of physical locations.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the plurality of physical locations is geographically dispersed so as to increase fault tolerance.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein a string identifier is used to identify the physical location of the requested assembly.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises trusting all assemblies or portions of assemblies located at a trusted virtualized location.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the information encoded within the assembly comprises information in the assembly'"'"'s string identifier.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the information encoded within the assembly comprises security metadata.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the information encoded within the assembly comprises rules and/or policies in a software program that requested the assembly.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the rules and policies are user customizable.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein customizing a customizable rule includes selecting the names of trusted assemblies.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein customizing a customizable rule includes selecting the number of assemblies that are to be trusted.

13. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises using rules and/or policies within a software program to resolve the assembly'"'"'s physical location.

14. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the physical location is a network location.

15. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises changing the physical location of the assembly while maintaining the same virtualized location.

16. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises automatically requesting file updates transparent to the user.

17. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

upon determining that the requested assembly failed to qualify as a trusted assembly, an act of automatically reducing the degree to which the requested assembly is trusted; and

an act of accessing the requested assembly from the physical location, wherein the assembly is accessed at a reduced degree of trust.

18. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method for accessing trusted assemblies from a virtualized location, the method comprising:

an act of installing a software program, wherein the act of installing the software program results in an installation of a subset, but not all, of files helpful to implement one or more portions of the software program'"'"'s functionality;

an act of receiving from the software program a request for an assembly;

an act of querying a local assembly cache for the requested assembly;

upon determining that the requested assembly is not stored in the local assembly cache, an act of using a network protocol to retrieve the requested assembly from a virtualized location;

an act of using the network protocol to determine whether an updated version of the requested assembly exists; and

upon determining that an updated version of the requested assembly exists, an act of accessing the updated version of the requested assembly.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises locally caching the retrieved assembly.

20. A method for accessing a trusted program file from an addressable location, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a communication, wherein the communication includes a request to access a program file, the address of the program file being expressed in the request as a first addressable location;

an act of resolving the first addressable location to a second addressable location, wherein the program file is physically stored at the second addressable location, the resolving comprising accessing an information store that maintains the current physical location of a program file corresponding to the requested program file'"'"'s first addressable location;

an act of determining whether the requested program file qualifies as a trusted program file by verifying that the program file at least sufficiently complies with information encoded within the program file; and

if it is determined that the requested program file is trusted, an act of accessing the requested program file from the second location.