Secure Message Inoculation

• US 20180013725A1
• Filed: 07/08/2016
• Published: 01/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xattic, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Xattic, Inc.
• Inventors: Kagarlitsky, Roman
• Granted Patent: US 10,348,690 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1466 Active attacks involving interception, injection, modification, spoofing of data unit addresses, e.g. hijacking, packet injection or TCP sequence number attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1483 service impersonation, e.g. phishing, pharming or web spoofing detection of rogue wireless access points H04W12/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols

Abstract

A message directed to a recipient of a messaging client is intercepted and prevented from reaching the messaging client in a native sent message format as sent from a sender of the message. One or more portions of the message are rendered to a format that is incapable of execution by a device and the message in the format that is incapable of execution is delivered to the messaging client for viewing and/or printing by the recipient.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a messaging gateway, a message sent from a sender and directed to a recipient associated with a messaging client controlled by the messaging gateway;

rendering, by the messaging gateway, the message in a messaging format to an image format; and

storing, by the messaging gateway, the message in the image format in a location accessible to the messaging client and providing a mechanism for the recipient for accessing the message in the image format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the messaging gateway is an email gateway, the message is an email, and the messaging client is an email client.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein rendering further includes at least one of:

i) rendering each attachment detected in the email and an email body associated with the email from native formats sent with the email to the image format, and ii) rendering web pages obtained by traversing embedded links within the email body from web-based formats to the image format.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering further includes processing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on the image format to produce an electronic format for the message, wherein the electronic format is capable of being edited.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storing further includes sending a second message to the messaging client of the recipient with a link for viewing the image format from the location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein storing further includes sending a second message to the messaging client of the recipient having the message in the image format.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein sending further includes attaching the image format of the message as an attachment to the second message.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein attaching further includes one or more of:

i) inserting in a body of the second message information relevant to the processing for rendering and relevant to metadata that accompanied the message, and ii) inserting into a header or the second message information relevant to the processing for rendering and relevant to the metadata that accompanied the message.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein inserting further includes providing with the information relevant to the metadata information identifying the sender, a date and a time that the message was sent by the sender to the recipient, and any subject line that accompanied the message.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or memory having instructions that when executed by an email gateway performs a method to:

intercept an email being sent from a sender to a recipient;

render data content present in the email from a first format to a second format that is incapable of execution by a computing device; and

provide a mechanism for the recipient to access the email in the second format.

11. The medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions to render further includes instructions to identify a portion of the data content as an attachment to the email in a third format and render the attachment in the third format to the second format.

12. The medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions to render further includes instructions to identify a portion of the data content as an embedded link, to traverse the embedded link, and to render a web page presented when traversing the embedded link from a web format to the second format.

13. The medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions to traverse and to render further include instructions to provide the embedded link to an external environment to traverse the embedded line and to render the web page to the second format.

14. The medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions to provide further include instructions to provide the mechanism as a second email sent from the email gateway to the recipient with the email sent from the sender attached as an attachment that is in the second format.

15. The medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions to provide further include instructions to provide the mechanism as a second email sent from the email gateway to the recipient with metadata that accompanied the email sent from the sender in the body of the second email and with a link for accessing the email in the second format.

16. The medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions to provide further include instructions to provide the mechanism as a separate website independent of an email client for the recipient that the recipient can log into and view the email in the second format.

17. A system, comprising:

an email gateway; and

an email client;

wherein the email gateway is configured to;

i) process emails being sent to the email client before the email client has access to the emails by rendering data content present in the emails to a non-executable format and ii) provide the email client access to the emails in the non-executable format.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the email gateway is further configured to:

iii) render any attachments in any of the emails to the non-executable format.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the email gateway is further configured to:

iii) send separate emails to the email client with a mechanism for viewing the emails in the non-executable format.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the email gateway is further configured to:

iii) act as a proxy for a second email gateway to the email client wherein the second email gateway directly interacts with the email client and the second email gateway is an existing email gateway for the email client that is unmodified.