METHOD, SYSTEM AND DEVICE FOR VALIDATING REPAIR FILES AND REPAIRING CORRUPT SOFTWARE

• US 20160004606A1
• Filed: 09/15/2015
• Published: 01/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Mishra, Abhinav, Day, Michael, Keen, Charles, Fei, Mingbiao, Rivait, Derek, Back, Alan B., Sigwald, Rainer
• Granted Patent: US 9,910,743 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/36 Preventing errors by testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions

Abstract

A system and method for repairing corrupt software components of a computer system. Corrupt software is detected and repaired utilizing an automated component repair service. Repair files are downloaded from an external storage location and used to repair the corruption. The downloaded files are preferably the smallest amount of data necessary to repair the identified corruption. The process of repairing corrupt files is used in conjunction with a software updating service to resolve problems that occur when corrupt software is updated by allowing a corrupt component to be repaired and then uninstalled such that an updated component can be properly installed.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least one processor;

memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a network adapter coupled to the memory and the at least one processor;

a component repair service configured to determine, based on a comparison of a hash of a file of a component to a cryptographically secure hash of an uncorrupt version of the file, that the file is corrupt, where the file is stored on another device that is separate from the computing device; and

the component repair service further configured to overwrite the corrupt file with the uncorrupt version of the file resulting in the component being repaired.

2. The computing device of claim 1, the component repair service configured to generate, via the at least one processor, the hash of the file.

3. The computing device of claim 1 further comprising a software update service configured to determine that the component needs to be updated to a newer version prior to determining that the file is corrupt.

4. The computing device of claim 3, the software update service further configured to install an updated version of the repaired component.

5. The computing device of claim 1, the component repair service further configured to download, via the network adapter into the memory in response to the file being determined corrupt, the uncorrupt version of the file.

6. The computing device of claim 5, the component repair service further configured to validate the downloaded version of the file resulting in a determination that the validated version of the file is authentic and safe to install.

7. The computing device of claim 1 where the component repair service is configured to repair the component in response to an indication that software including the component is compromising integrity of the another device.

8. A method performed on a computing device, the method comprising:

determining, by the computing device based on a comparison of a hash of a file of a component to a cryptographically secure hash of an uncorrupted version of the file, that the file is corrupt, where the file is stored on another device that is separate from the computing device; and

overwriting, by the computing device, the corrupt file with the uncorrupt version of the file resulting in the component being repaired.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising generating, by the computing device, the hash of the file.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising determining, by the computing device, that the component needs to be updated to a newer version prior to the determining that the file is corrupt.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising installing, by the computing device, an updated version of the repaired component.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising downloading, by the computing device in response to the determining that the file is corrupt, the uncorrupt version of the file.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising validating, by the computing device, the downloaded version of the file resulting in a determination that the validated version of the file is authentic and safe to install.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising repairing, by the computing device, the component in response to an indication that software including the component is compromising integrity of the another device.

15. At least one memory device that comprises computer-executable instructions that, based on execution by a computing device, configure the computing device to perform actions comprising:

determining, based on a comparison of a hash of a file of a component to a cryptographically secure hash of an uncorrupted version of the file, that the file is corrupt, where the file is stored on another device that is separate from the computing device;

downloading, in response to the determining that the file is corrupt, the uncorrupt version of the file; and

overwriting the corrupt file with the downloaded version of the file resulting in the component being repaired.

16. The at least one memory device of claim 15, the actions further comprising generating the hash of the file.

17. The at least one memory device of claim 15, the actions further comprising determining that the component needs to be updated to a newer version prior to the determining that the file is corrupt.

18. The at least one memory device of claim 17, the actions further comprising installing an updated version of the repaired component.

19. The at least one memory device of claim 15, the actions further comprising validating the downloaded version of the file resulting in a determination that the validated version of the file is authentic and safe to install.

20. The at least one memory device of claim 15, the actions further comprising repairing the component in response to an indication that software including the component is compromising integrity of the another device.