METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING SECURITY AND RELIABILITY IN A NETWORKED APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT

• US 20130276089A1
• Filed: 04/12/2012
• Published: 10/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Netflix, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Netflix, Inc.
• Inventors: Tseitlin, Ariel, Rapoport, Roy, Chan, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 9,027,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/45 Structures or tools for the administration of authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/034 Test or assess a computer or a system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/121 Timestamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3268 using certificate validation, registration, distribution or revocation, e.g. certificate revocation list [CRL]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A security application manages security and reliability of networked applications executing collection of interacting computing elements within a distributed computing architecture. The security application monitors various classes of resources utilized by the collection of nodes within the distributed computing architecture and determine whether utilization of a class of resources is approaching a pre-determined maximum limit. The security application performs a vulnerability scan of a networked application to determine whether the networked application is prone to a risk of intentional or inadvertent breach by an external application. The security application scans a distributed computing architecture for the existence of access control lists (ACLs), and stores ACL configurations and configuration changes in a database. The security application scans a distributed computing architecture for the existence of security certificates, places newly discovered security certificates in a database, and deletes outdated security certificates. Advantageously, security and reliability are improved in a distributed computing architecture.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a distributed computing architecture, the method comprising:

discovering a resource within the distributed computing architecture;

determining a classification for the resource based on one or more classification criteria;

determining whether the classification corresponds to a record within a database; and

if the classification corresponds to a record within the database, then incrementing a counter associated with the record;

or

if the classification does not correspond to a record within the database, then

initializing another record within the database that corresponds to the classification; and

initializing another counter associated with the another record.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource comprises an instance of a software application executing within the distributed computing architecture.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying a system administrator when the classification does not correspond to a record within the database.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving a threshold value associated with the record;

and notifying a user when the first counter exceeds the threshold value.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the threshold value comprises a percentage of a maximum limit.

6. A computer-implemented method for managing a distributed computing architecture, the method comprising:

scanning a networked application within the distributed computing architecture for a security vulnerability;

in response, detecting a first security vulnerability;

comparing the first security vulnerability against a database that includes a listing of previously-discovered security vulnerabilities; and

if the first security vulnerability is not listed within the database, then

initializing a record within the database that corresponds to the first security vulnerability;

or

if the first security vulnerability is listed within the database, then

updating the record within the database that corresponds to the first security vulnerability to indicate that the first security vulnerability was detected.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the database includes an issue tracking system that is configured to track whether or not one or more security vulnerabilities have been resolved.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising notifying a system administrator when the record corresponding to the first security vulnerability is initialized.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein updating the record within the database further comprises determining that the vulnerability is marked as being resolved;

and notifying a system administrator that the first security vulnerability was detected.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein scanning the networked application further comprises notifying a system administrator that the distributed computing architecture is being scanned for security vulnerabilities.

11. A computer-implemented method for managing a distributed computing architecture, the method comprising:

discovering an access control list (ACL) within the distributed computing architecture;

determining whether the ACL corresponds to a first record within a database; and

if the ACL corresponds to a record within the database, then

determining that a configuration of the ACL differs from a configuration of the record; and

initializing another record within the database that corresponds to the record and has the configuration of the ACL;

or

if the ACL does not correspond to a first record within the database, then

initializing another record within the database that corresponds to the ACL and has the configuration of the ACL.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the ACL comprises a security group that includes one or more source objects, one or more ports, and one or more destination objects.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more source objects are identifiable via an internet protocol (IP) address.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more source objects are identifiable based on the one or more source objects being members of the ACL.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising computing an exposure metric for the ACL based on a quantity of source objects, a quantity of ports, and a quantity of destination objects associated with the ACL.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising computing the number of instances of a software application that execute within the ACL.

17. A computer-implemented method for managing a distributed computing architecture, the method comprising:

discovering a first security certificate within the distributed computing architecture that includes a first identifying label and an expiration date;

comparing the first security certificate with a plurality of security certificates that resides within a storage repository;

determining that the first security certificate corresponds to a second security certificate that resides within the storage repository;

deleting the second security certificate from the storage repository; and

storing the first security certificate within the storage repository.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first security certificate complies with a secure sockets layer (SSL) cryptographic protocol.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein determining that the first security certificate corresponds to a second security certificate comprises determining that an identifying label associated with the first security certificate is equivalent to an identifying label associated with the second security certificate.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein discovering a first security certificate comprises accessing a network addresses on a port utilizing hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS);

and receiving a security certificate from the network address.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the one or more network addresses are associated with an elastic load balancing system configured to distribute network traffic related to a software application across multiple instances of the software application.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein discovering a first security certificate comprises scanning a file folder including one or more security certificates, and wherein the one or more security certificates are associated with one or more versions of a software application within a source code control system.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein discovering a first security certificate comprises scanning the contents of one or more web pages, and wherein a security certificate a corresponding to the one or more web pages is received from a server.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising scanning the plurality of security certificates residing within the storage repository, and notifying a system administrator with respect to each security certificate that has an expiration date on or before a threshold date.

25. The method of claim 17, further comprising scanning the plurality of security certificates residing within the storage repository, and deleting any security certificate that has not been updated within a predetermined amount of time.