SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERING EXTERNAL DATA TO A PROCESS RUNNING ON A VIRTUAL MACHINE

• US 20140325618A1
• Filed: 02/18/2014
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Actividentity Australia Pty LT (Assa Abloy AB)
• Original Assignee: Actividentity Australia Pty LT (Assa Abloy AB)
• Inventors: Sandland, Carl, Herscovitch, Matthew Patrick, Dingwall, Timothy Brian
• Application Number:
  US14/182,465
• Publication Number:
  US 20140325618A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/41 where a single sign-on provides access to a plurality of computers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32

Abstract

In a computer system including a computer terminal, an operating system installed on said computer terminal, a virtual machine running on the operating system, a server communicatively coupled to the computer terminal and a process including instructions that when executed on a virtual machine define a user interface; a Single Sign On (SSO) system comprising a database of authentication credentials accessible to the computer terminal, and instructions executable on the virtual machine operative to: obtain user interface state data from the process; query the virtual machine to obtain component data related to the user interface state data; and manipulate the component data so as to deliver authentication credentials to the process.

Claims

1-14. -14. (canceled)

15. A method of logging on to a computer system, comprising:

determine whether a log-in opportunity is detected by obtaining user interface state data from a process having instructions that define a user interface when executed on a virtual machine; and

upon the log-in opportunity being detected, querying the virtual machine to obtain component data related to the user interface state data and delivering authentication credentials from a database of authentication credentials to the log-in opportunity of the process, wherein attribute data is used to obtain proper authentication credentials from the database.

16. The method claimed in claim 15, wherein the process includes an applet stored at a server of the computer system, the applet including the instructions that define a user interface.

17. The method claimed in claim 15, wherein the computer system further includes a browser installed on a computer workstation that downloads the applet from the server and runs the applet on the virtual machine.

18. The method claimed in claim 15, wherein the process includes an application having the instructions to define a user interface.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein, in order to retrieve correct information, code running within the virtual machine determines a unique identifier for identifying the process running in the virtual machine.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the unique identifier for identifying the process running in the virtual machine is selected from the group consisting of:

a class name of a window, a thread group of the window, textual information provided by an accessibility applications program interface (API) about the window, and a title of the window.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface (GUI) and the user interface state data indicates creation of a window in the GUI.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein an applications program interface (API) running on the virtual machine is used to obtain the user interface state data.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the API is an accessibility API employed to hook the virtual machine process.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the API is an accessibility API, and wherein a name is allocated by the API to a window.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the name of the window in an application is retrieved as an Accessible Name.

26. The method of claim 15, wherein the process is either an applet or an application.