Adaptive security system having a hierarchy of security servers

• US 6,209,101 B1
• Filed: 07/17/1998
• Issued: 03/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Musarubra US LLC (Musarubra US SellCo LLC)
• Original Assignee: Secure Computing Corporation (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Carney, Michael R., Loe, Brian J., Mitchem, Terrance
• Primary Examiner(s): Swann, Tod R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sulpizio, Jr., Ronald F.
• Application Number:
  US09/118,537
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 713/200, 713/201, 713/164, 713/151
• US Class Current: 726/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

An adaptive security system having a hierarchy of security servers. The security system maintains a primary security server for each task or process executing within a computing environment. An enforcement mechanism receives resource requests from the tasks and queries the corresponding primary security server which resolves the request based on a set of security associations. If the primary security server is unable to resolve the request, the enforcement mechanism queries a parent security server. Security servers are dynamically created and terminated in response to changing organizational policies. The present invention facilitates the dynamic creation and termination of security servers to adapt to organizational policy changes.

Claims

1. A security system for controlling access to a plurality of resources within a computing environment comprising:

a plurality of security servers, wherein each security server includes a set of security associations; and

an enforcement mechanism communicatively coupled to the plurality of security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism enforces a request to access one of the plurality of resources by querying one of the security servers.

2. The security system of claim 1, wherein the enforcement mechanism includes an operating system kernel having a task control block for each of a plurality of tasks executing in the computing environment, and further wherein the enforcement mechanism queries a primary security server identified in the task control block of the corresponding task.

3. The security system of claim 2, wherein each primary security server is a task executing within the computing environment, and further wherein the task control block of each primary security server identifies a parent security server for resolving resource requests that the primary security server is unable to resolve.

4. The security system of claim 3, wherein one of the security servers is a root security server.

5. The security system of claim 3, wherein each security server includes a data structure defining an execution period.

8. The security system of claim 1, wherein the security servers are distributed across a plurality of computers.

12. The security system of claim 1, wherein the enforcement mechanism queries the security servers by generating an encrypted message and communicating the encrypted message to the queried security server.

13. The security system of claim 1, wherein the enforcement mechanism queries the security servers by generating a digitally signed message and communicating the digitally signed message to the queried security server.

6. A security system for controlling access to a plurality of resources within a computing environment comprising:

a plurality of security servers, wherein each security server includes a set of security associations; and

an enforcement mechanism communicatively coupled to the plurality of security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism enforces a request to access one of the plurality of resources by querying one of the security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism includes an operating system kernel having a task control block for each of a plurality of tasks executing in the computing environment, wherein the enforcement mechanism queries a primary security server identified in the task control block of the corresponding task, wherein each primary security server is a task executing within the computing environment, wherein the task control block of each primary security server identifies a parent security server for resolving resource requests that the primary security server is unable to resolve, wherein each security server includes a data structure defining an execution period, wherein the kernel creates a security server based on a command from one of the tasks in the computing environment, and further wherein the kernel sets the parent security server of the created security server to the primary security server of the commanding task.

7. A security system for controlling access to a plurality of resources within a computing environment comprising:

a plurality of security servers, wherein each security server includes a set of security associations; and

an enforcement mechanism communicatively coupled to the plurality of security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism enforces a request to access one of the plurality of resources by querying one of the security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism includes an operating system kernel having a task control block for each of a plurality of tasks executing in the computing environment, wherein the enforcement mechanism queries a primary security server identified in the task control block of the corresponding task, wherein each primary security server is a task executing within the computing environment, wherein the task control block of each primary security server identifies a parent security server for resolving resource requests that the primary security server is unable to resolve, wherein each security server includes a data structure defining an execution period, wherein the kernel terminates a security server by identifying the tasks that have the terminated security server as a primary security server, and further wherein the kernel sets the primary security server of each identified task to the parent security server of the terminated security server.

9. A security system for controlling access to a plurality of resources within a computing environment comprising:

a plurality of security severs, wherein each security server includes a set of security associations; and

an enforcement mechanism communicatively coupled to the plurality of security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism enforces a request to access one of the plurality of resources by querying one of the security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism includes an operating system kernel having a task control block for each of a plurality of tasks executing in the computing environment, wherein the enforcement mechanism queries a primary security server identified in the task control block of the corresponding task, and wherein the operating system kernel includes a cache containing policy queries previously resolved by the security servers.

10. The security system of claim 9, wherein each security server contains a list of registered tasks to be notified when the corresponding security server is terminated.

11. A security system for controlling access to a plurality of resources within a computing environment comprising:

a plurality of security severs, wherein each security server includes a set of security associations; and

an enforcement mechanism communicatively coupled to the plurality of security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism enforces a request to access one of the plurality of resources by querying one of the security servers, wherein the enforcement mechanism includes an operating system kernel having a task control block for each of a plurality of tasks executing in the computing environment, wherein the enforcement mechanism queries a primary security server identified in the task control block of the corresponding task, and wherein each security association maps the requesting task and the requested resources to a response that is selected from the set of (I) access granted, (ii) access denied and (iii) security fault.

14. A method for controlling access to a plurality of resources in a computing environment comprising the steps of:

receiving a user request to access one of the resources of the computing environment;

querying at least one of a plurality of security servers to resolve the resource request based on a set of security associations; and

enforcing the request as a function of a response from the queried security server.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the computing environment includes an operating system kernel having a task control block for each of a plurality of tasks executing in the computing environment, and further wherein the querying step includes the steps of:

examining the task control block to determine a primary security server for a task requesting one of the resources; and

querying the primary security server to resolve the resource request.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each security server is a task executing within the computing environment, and wherein the querying step further performs the following steps when the primary security server is unable to resolve the resource request:

identifying a parent security server identified in the task control block of the primary security server; and

querying the parent security server to resolve the resource request.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein the querying step includes the step of querying one or more security servers distributed across a plurality of computers.

24. The method of claim 14, wherein the querying step includes the step of generating an encrypted message and communicating the encrypted message to the queried security server.

25. The method of claim 14, wherein the querying step includes the step of generating a digitally signed message and communicating the digitally signed message to the queried security server.

17. A method for controlling access to a plurality of resources in a computing environment that includes an operating system kernel having a task control block for each of a plurality of tasks executing in the computing environment, comprising the steps of:

receiving a user request to access one of the resources of the computing environment;

querying at least one of a plurality of security servers to resolve the resource request based on a set of security associations, wherein each security server is a task executing within the computing environment, wherein the querying step includes the steps of;

examining the task control block to determine a primary security server for a task requesting one of the resources;

querying the primary security server to resolve the resource request; and

when the primary security server is unable to resolve the resource request,

identifying a parent security server identified in the task control block of the primary security server; and

querying the parent security server to resolve the resource request;

enforcing the request as a function of a response from the queried security server;

creating a security server upon receiving a first command from one of the tasks; and

terminating a security server upon receiving a second command from one of the tasks.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the creating step includes the step of setting the parent security server of the created security server to the primary security server of the commanding task.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the terminating step includes the steps of:

examining each task control structure of the operating system kernel to identify a set of tasks having the terminated security server as the primary security server; and

changing the primary security server for each identified task to the parent security server of the terminated security server.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the operating system kernel includes a cache containing security associations for previously resolved policy queries.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein each security server maintains a list of registered tasks, and further wherein the terminating step includes the step of notifying each of the identified tasks that the terminated security server has been terminated.

23. A method for controlling access to a plurality of resources in a computing environment comprising the steps of:

receiving a user request to access one of the resources of the computing environment;

querying at least one of a plurality of security servers to resolve the resource request based on a set of security associations, wherein the querying step includes the step of selecting the response from the set of;

(I) access granted, (ii) access denied and (iii) security fault; and

enforcing the request as a function of a response from the queried security server.

26. A computer-readable medium encoded with a software program for processing user requests for resources in a computing environment, the software program executing the steps of:

creating a hierarchy of security servers, wherein each user is assigned a primary security server; and

enforcing each of a plurality of user requests by querying the corresponding primary security server to resolve the resource request based on a set of security associations.

27. The computer-readable medium encoded with a software program of claim 26, wherein the querying step includes the step of querying a parent security server of the primary security server when the primary security server is unable to resolve the resource request.