SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A SCANNING API

• US 20120110174A1
• Filed: 12/22/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lookout Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Lookout Incorporated
• Inventors: Wootton, Bruce, Mahaffey, Kevin Patrick, Wyatt, Timothy Micheal
• Granted Patent: US 9,235,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/564 by virus signature recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0038 System on Chip
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

Application programs for mobile communication devices are stored in a data store. The applications may be collected from any number of different sources such as through an application programming interface (API), from web crawling, from users, or combinations of these. The applications are analyzed and the analysis results reported. The applications may be “continuously” analyzed so that any changes in assessments can be reported. If an application for which an analysis is sought is not in the data store, information about a different, but related application may be provided.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by an Application Programming Interface (API), a request for an analysis of an application;

analyzing the application;

returning a first result including a first assessment of an attribute associated with the application;

after the returning a first result, determining that the application should be reanalyzed;

reanalyzing the application; and

based on the reanalysis, returning a second result including a second assessment of the attribute, wherein the second assessment is different from the first assessment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determination that the application should be reanalyzed is determined without having received at the API a request to reanalyze the application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing the application is before the receiving, by an Application Programming Interface (API), a request for an analysis of an application.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyzing the application is after the receiving, by an Application Programming Interface (API), a request for an analysis of an application.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the based on the reanalysis, returning a second result comprises:

sending a notification to an address specified in the request.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the address comprises an email address.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the request comprises the application.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the request does not comprise the application.

10. The method of claim 1 comprising receiving the application from a user and storing the application in a data store.

11. The method of claim 1 comprising crawling a website to download the application into a data store.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the second result comprises a plurality of remediation actions.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the second result comprises a single remediation action.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the first result comprises an indication that the application should be associated with a first category.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the first result comprises an identification of an ad network used by the application.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the first result comprises an identification of an analytics system used by the application.

17. A method comprising:

scanning, by a server, a plurality of application programs and analyzing usage information associated with each of the application programs to generate a plurality of application profiles, each application profile being associated with an application program of the plurality of application programs;

storing the plurality of application profiles in a data store;

receiving a request for an application profile of a specific application program;

determining that the application profile of the specific application program is not in the data store;

based on the application profile of the specific application program not being in the data store, identifying another application program that is related to the specific application program; and

in response to the request for the application profile of the specific application program, providing an application profile associated with the other application program.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the other application program is related to the specific application program because the other application program and the specific application program have the same packaging.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the other application program is related to the specific application program because the other application program and the specific application program are from the same publisher.

20. The method of claim 17 comprising receiving at least a subset of the plurality of application programs from an application programming interface (API).

21. The method of claim 17 comprising receiving at least a subset of the plurality of application programs from a web crawler.

22. The method of claim 17 comprising receiving at least a subset of the plurality of application programs from users.

23. A method comprising:

scanning, by a server, a plurality of application programs and analyzing usage information associated with each of the application programs to generate a plurality of application profiles, each application profile including scan results and usage analysis results;

storing the plurality of application profiles in a data store;

receiving a request for an application profile of a specific application program;

determining that the application profile for the specific application program is not in the data store;

based on the application profile for the specific application program not being in the data store, scanning the specific application program;

comparing scan results of the specific application program with the plurality of application profiles;

identifying a first application profile of a first application program as having scan results similar to the scan results of the specific application program;

generating a composite application profile, the composite application profile including the scan results of the specific application program and usage analysis results from the first application profile; and

in response to the request, providing the composite application profile.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the usage analysis results of the composite application profile comprises battery usage of the first application program.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the scan results of the composite application profile comprises a number of vulnerabilities found in the specific application program.

26. The method of claim 23 comprising receiving at least a subset of the plurality of application programs from an application programming interface (API).

27. The method of claim 23 comprising receiving at least a subset of the plurality of application programs from a web crawler.

28. The method of claim 23 comprising receiving at least a subset of the plurality of application programs from users.