Implicit population of access control lists

• US 7,490,238 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2007
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Roskind, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand; Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Powers; William S
• Application Number:
  US11/782,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20070271607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 567 Days
• Field of Search: 713/170, 726/15
• US Class Current: 713/170
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks

Abstract

Communication applications may include lists of users with which a user of the application communicates. If two users of a communications application each include the other user on their user lists, an implicit trust may be established between the users. For example, if user A includes user B in her list and user B includes user A in his list, then it may be determined that each user knows and/or trusts the other user. As a result, a connection or communications pathway may be automatically created between the client devices of the users to facilitate communications between the users based on the implicit trust.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining whether a first user is included on a user list associated with a communications application of a second user;

determining whether the second user is included on a user list of a communications application associated with the first user, wherein the user list associated with the communications application of the second user and the user list associated with the communications application of the first user are maintained independently of one another; and

regulating a communications pathway between a first client device associated with the first user and a second client device associated with the second user based on both the determination of whether the first user is included on a user list associated with a communications application of the second user and the determination of whether the second user is included on a user list of a communications application associated with the first user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes establishing a virtual private network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications application is an instant messaging application such that determining whether the first and second users are included on user lists includes accessing the instant messaging application.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes providing an Internet protocol address of the first client device to the second client device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes providing an Internet protocol address of the second client device to the first client device.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes:

providing a shared secret to the first and second client devices,

sending a communication to the Internet protocol address of the second client device, the communication including the shared secret, and

validating the identity of the first client device based on the shared secret included in the communication.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending an initial message from the first client device to the second client device, wherein regulating the communications pathway includes determining that a source Internet protocol address for the message received from the first client device is different from the Internet protocol address of the first client device.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising determining that the source Internet protocol address of the message received from the first client device is a global Internet protocol address, and the Internet protocol address of the first client device is a local Internet protocol address.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes providing the Internet protocol address of the second client device to the first client device, providing a shared secret to the first and second client devices, sending a communication including the shared secret to the Internet protocol address of the second client device, and validating the identity of the first client device using the shared secret.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes establishing a hole in a firewall associated with the first client device for an Internet protocol address associated with the second client device.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising determining that a direct communications pathway between the first client device and the second client device may not be established.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein establishing the hole includes:

requesting creation of a proxy forward,

selecting a port number of the firewall,

providing the port number and Internet protocol address of the firewall to the second client device, and

establishing the proxy forward for the Internet protocol address associated with the second client device.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein regulating the communications pathway further includes:

providing a shared secret to the first and second client devices,

contacting by the second client device the Internet protocol address associated with the firewall,

presenting the shared secret,

validating the identity of the second client device using the shared secret, and

establishing the communications pathway.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein requesting the proxy forward includes:

selecting a target Internet protocol address and a port number of the firewall associated with the first client device,

providing the target Internet protocol address to a host,

sending the target Internet protocol address from the host to the second client device,

sending an Internet protocol address associated with the second client device to the host,

providing the Internet protocol address associated with the second client device to the firewall associated with the first client device, and

enabling the proxy forward for the Internet protocol address associated with the second client device.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein providing the Internet protocol address associated with the second client device includes providing the Internet protocol address of a firewall associated with the second client device.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes receiving a contact from the firewall associated with the second client device at the target Internet protocol address and port number of the firewall associated with the first client device.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a request from the communications program of the first user to establish a communications pathway with the communications program of the second user, wherein:

determining whether the first user is included on the user list associated with the communications application of the second user comprises determining whether the first user is included on the user list associated with the communications application of the second user in response to receiving the request;

determining whether the second user is included on the user list of the communications application associated with the first user comprises determining whether the second user is included on the user list of the communications application associated with the first user in response to receiving the request; and

regulating the communications pathway comprises establishing the communications pathway between the first client device and the second client device.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a message from the communications program of the first user directed the communications program of the second user, wherein:

determining whether the first user is included on the user list associated with a communications application of the second user comprises determining whether the first user is included on the user list associated with the communications application of the second user in response to receiving the message;

determining whether the second user is included on the user list of a communications application associated with the first user comprises determining whether the second user is included on the user list of a communications application associated with the first user in response to receiving the message; and

regulating the communications pathway comprises establishing the communications pathway between the first client device and the second client device.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein regulating the communications pathway includes establishing a peer-to-peer connection between the first client device and the second client device.

20. A communications system comprising:

a first client device associated with a first user and including a communications application;

a second client associated with a second user and including the communications application; and

a host to determine whether the first user is included on a user list of the communications application of the second client device, and to determine whether the second user is included on a user list of the communications application of the first client device, and to regulate a communications pathway between the first client device and the second client device based on both the determination of whether the first user is included on the user list of the communications application of the second client device and the determination of whether the second user is included on the user list of the communications application of the first device;

wherein the user list of the communications application of the second client device and the user list of the communications application of the first client device are maintained independently of one another.

21. A host system comprising:

an interface to receive a communication from a first client device associated with a first user and to transmit a communication to a second client device associated with a second user;

storage to store a user list associated with the first user and to store a user list associated with the second user; and

a host to determine an identifier of the first user and an identifier of the second user associated with a received message, to determine whether the first user list includes the second user identifier, to determine whether the second user list includes the first user identifier, and to regulate a communications pathway between the first and second client devices based on both the determination of whether the first user list includes the second user identifier and the determination of whether the second user list includes the first user identifier;

wherein the user list associated with the first user and the user list associated with the second user are maintained independently of one another.

22. A method comprising:

determining whether a first user is included on a user list associated with a communications application of a second user;

determining whether the second user is included on a user list of a communications application associated with the first user, wherein the user list associated with the communications application of the second user and the user list associated with the communications application of the first user are maintained independently of one another; and

inferring an implicit trust between the first user and the second user based on both the determination of whether the first user is included on the user list associated with the communications application of the second user and the determination of whether the second user is included on the user list of a communications application associated with the first user.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

regulating communications between the first user and the second user based on the inferred implicit trust.