SYSTEM AND ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE FOR CONTROLLING CLIENT ACCESS

• US 20080263211A1
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fruchtman, Barry
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,385 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL

Abstract

Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture, wherein in certain embodiments a request is received to initiate a session. A determination is made whether the session should be initiated with addressing information provided by a client. The session is initiated with trusted addressing information corresponding to the client, in response to determining that the session should not be initiated with the addressing information provided by the client.

Claims

1. A system for communicating with a client, the system comprising:

a server coupled to the client;

means for receiving a request from the client to initiate a session with the server, wherein the client provides an addressing information for initiating the session;

means for determining whether the session should be initiated from the server to the client with the addressing information provided by the client; and

means for initiating the session with trusted addressing information corresponding to the client, in response to determining that the session should not be initiated with the addressing information provided by the client, wherein the trusted addressing information is stored in a data structure, wherein the data structure includes for a plurality of clients whether each client of the plurality of clients is allowed to initiate sessions with client provided addressing information.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage manager implemented in the server, wherein the means for receiving the request, the means for determining whether the session should be initiated, and the means for initiating the session are implemented in the storage manager; and

a firewall, wherein the client is separated by the firewall from the server.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the firewall prevents the client from initiating the session with the server.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the request indicates to the server that the client is ready to perform a task, and that the server should initiate the session with the client.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a trusted administrative client coupled to the server;

means for receiving the trusted addressing information corresponding to the client from the trusted administrative client, prior to receiving the request to initiate the session.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating the session with the addressing information provided by the client, in response to determining that the session should be initiated with the addressing information provided by the client.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the trusted addressing information includes the Internet Protocol Address of the client.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a firewall, wherein the firewall prevents the client from initiating the session with the server, and wherein the server is required to allow access to the client across the firewall.

9. An article of manufacture, wherein the article of manufacture causes operations, the operations comprising:

receiving a request, from a client, to initiate a session, wherein the client provides an addressing information for initiating the session;

determining whether the session should be initiated with the addressing information provided by the client; and

initiating the session with trusted addressing information corresponding to the client, in response to determining that the session should not be initiated with the addressing information provided by the client, wherein the trusted addressing information is stored in a data structure, wherein the data structure includes for a plurality of clients whether each client of the plurality of clients is allowed to initiate sessions with client provided addressing information.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 9, wherein receiving the request, determining whether the session should be initiated, and initiating the session are performed by a storage manager implemented in a server from which the client is separated by a firewall.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the firewall prevents the client from initiating the session with the server.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the request indicates to a server that the client is ready to perform a task, and that the server should initiate the session with the client.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 10, the operations further comprising:

receiving the trusted addressing information corresponding to the client from a trusted administrative client, prior to receiving the request to initiate the session.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 10, the operations further comprising:

initiating the session with the addressing information provided by the client, in response to determining that the session should be initiated with the addressing information provided by the client.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the trusted addressing information includes the Internet Protocol Address of the client.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein a firewall prevents the client from initiating the session with a server, and wherein the server is required to allow access to the client across the firewall.