Securing inter-process communication

• US 20090049454A1
• Filed: 08/15/2007
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Schneider, James P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,863,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/314
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues

Abstract

A request to post a message to a destination is intercepted in an operating environment in which processes communicate via message queues. Message content and requester information associated with the request is evaluated to determine whether the message is to be posted. The message is posted to a message queue of the destination if the message is to be posted.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

intercepting a request to post a message to a destination in an operating environment in which processes communicate via message queues;

evaluating message content and requestor information associated with the request to determine whether the message is to be posted; and

posting the message to a message queue of the destination if the message is to be posted.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the evaluating is performed by a kernel component of the operating environment.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request to post the message is made by a method invoked on a first window object, and wherein the destination is a second window object.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating a security context of the destination to determine whether the message is to be posted.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the message is to not be posted, notifying a requestor that the requestor does not have access to post the message to the destination.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the message is not to be posted, storing the message and the requestor information in a log.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the message is not to be posted, and it satisfies additional criteria, causing the requestor to be terminated.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the additional criteria include at least one of posting an undocumented message, posting the message with impossible parameters, and posting the message in an inappropriate context.

9. A machine-accessible medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a computer implemented method comprising:

intercepting a request to post a message to a destination in an operating environment in which processes communicate via message queues;

evaluating message content and requestor information associated with the request to determine whether the message is to be posted; and

posting the message to a message queue of the destination if the message is to be posted.

10. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein the evaluating is performed by a kernel component of the operating environment.

11. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein the request to post the message is made by a method invoked on a first window object, and wherein the destination is a second window object.

12. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

evaluating a security context of the destination to determine whether the message is to be posted.

13. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

if the message is to not be posted, notifying a requester that the requestor does not have access to post the message to the destination.

14. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

if the message is not to be posted, storing the message and the requestor information in a log.

15. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, the method further comprising:

if the message is not to be posted, and it satisfies additional criteria, causing the requestor to be terminated.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 15, wherein the additional criteria include at least one of posting an undocumented message, posting the message with impossible parameters, and posting the message in an inappropriate context.

17. A computing apparatus, comprising:

a message interceptor to intercept a request to post a message to a destination in an operating environment in which processes communicate via message queues; and

a message evaluator, coupled with the message interceptor, to evaluate message content and requestor information associated with the request to determine whether the message is to be posted, and to permit the message to be posted to a message queue of the destination if the message is to be posted.

18. The computing apparatus of claim 17, wherein the message evaluator is a kernel component of the operating environment.

19. The computing apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

a first window object having a method to post the message; and

a second window object that corresponds to the destination, the second window object to receive the message and to place the message on a message queue.

20. The computing apparatus of claim 17, wherein the message evaluator is configured to evaluate a security context of the destination to determine whether the message is to be posted.