Provisioning an operating environment of a remote computer

• US 7,779,469 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2007
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Aventail LLC
• Original Assignee: Aventail LLC
• Inventors: Young, Brian, Anandam, Parvez, Hopen, Chris, Tomlinson, Gary, Flagg, Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): LAFORGIA, CHRISTIAN A
• Application Number:
  US11/927,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20080148364A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,023 Days
• Field of Search: 726/22, 709/226
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database

Abstract

Systems and techniques are provided for controlling requests for resources from remote computers. A remote computer'"'"'s ability to access a resource is determined based upon the computer'"'"'s operating environment. The computer or computers responsible for controlling access to a resource will interrogate the remote computer to ascertain its operating environment. The computer or computers responsible for controlling access to a resource may, for example, download one or more interrogator agents onto the remote computer to determine its operating environment. Based upon the interrogation results, the computer or computers responsible for controlling access to a resource will control the remote computer'"'"'s access to the requested resource.

Claims

1. A method of provisioning an operating environment of a remote computer, the method comprising:

providing a first interrogator agent for installation onto the remote computer to determine artifacts present on the remote computer;

authenticating an identity of a user of the remote computer based on information regarding the artifacts received from the first interrogator agent;

providing a second interrogator agent for installation on the remote computer based on the authentication of the identity of the user of the remote computer;

determining whether to grant the user access to a resource based on;

information received from the second interrogator agent, and

a zone of trust associated with a user and criteria associated with the zone of trust, wherein determining the zone of trust includes;

classifying the user as a member of a community comprising a plurality of zones of trust,

creating a graph of signatures associated with each zone of trust, and

associating the information concerning artifacts with a signature from the graph; and

providing a process object for provisioning the remote computer to access the resource based on the determination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein authenticating an identity of the user of the remote computer further comprises providing a security agent to protect user information during authentication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to grant the user access to the resource is further based on a rule associating the identity of the user with the process object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the zone of trust is further based on the information concerning the artifacts received from the first interrogator agent.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the zone of trust is further based on information received from the second interrogator agent.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the second interrogator agent is further based on the information concerning the artifacts received from the first interrogator agent.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing one or more provisioning objects to the remote computer based on the information concerning the artifacts received from the first interrogator agent.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the process object for provisioning the remote computer to access the resource further comprises providing a communication object configured to provide a communication technique for providing the process object to the remote computer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein providing the communication object further comprises providing authentication information for allowing the remote computer to use the communication technique.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the process object for provisioning the remote computer to access the resource further comprises providing an installer agent configured to install the process object on the remote computer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the installer agent is further configured to compare version information concerning process object components with version information concerning corresponding components on the remote computer and to install the components determined to be newest.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a manifest request to the second interrogator agent, the manifest request comprising a list of one or more objects to find on the remote computer.

13. A computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for provisioning an operating environment of a remote computer, the method comprising:

providing a first interrogator agent for installation onto the remote computer to determine artifacts present on the remote computer;

authenticating an identity of a user of the remote computer based on information regarding the artifacts received from the first interrogator agent;

providing a second interrogator agent for installation on the remote computer based on the authentication of the identity of the user of the remote computer;

determining whether to permit the user to access a resource based on;

information received from the second interrogator agent, and

a zone of trust associated with a user and criteria associated with the zone of trust, wherein determining the zone of trust includes;

classifying the user as a member of a community comprising a plurality of zones of trust,

creating a graph of signatures associated with each zone of trust, and

associating the information concerning artifacts with a signature from the graph; and

providing a process object for provisioning the remote computer to access the resource based on the determination.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the program is further executable to provide a security agent to protect user information during authentication.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the program is further executable to associate the identity of the user with the process object based on a rule.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the program is further executable to determine the zone of trust based on the information concerning the artifacts received from the first interrogator agent and on the information received from the second interrogator agent.