Packet classification in a network security device
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- receiving, by a processor, a data packet;
examining the data packet to initially classify the data packet including initially classifying the data packet using information included in an header and content;
determining flow instructions for processing the data packet based on both the header and the content including determining, using at least one of the header or the content, whether the data packet is associated with a data flow that has previously been classified;
if the data flow has previously been classified, performing at least one of content based protocol decoding, content based object extraction, or content based pattern matching;
if the data flow has not previously been classified, processing the data packet based on whether the data flow is a known data flow;
updating the initial classification based on a processing result of one or more of the content based protocol decoding, content based object extraction, or content based pattern matching; and
using the updated classification to determine whether a next data flow has previously been classified.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatuses are described for inspecting data packets in a computer network. One or more data packets through the network have associated header data and content. One method includes receiving a data packet, examining the data packet to classify the data packet including classifying the data packet using information included in the header and content, determining flow instructions for processing the packet based on both the header information and the content and processing of the packet using the flow instructions.
109 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
- receiving, by a processor, a data packet;
examining the data packet to initially classify the data packet including initially classifying the data packet using information included in an header and content;
determining flow instructions for processing the data packet based on both the header and the content including determining, using at least one of the header or the content, whether the data packet is associated with a data flow that has previously been classified;
if the data flow has previously been classified, performing at least one of content based protocol decoding, content based object extraction, or content based pattern matching;
if the data flow has not previously been classified, processing the data packet based on whether the data flow is a known data flow;
updating the initial classification based on a processing result of one or more of the content based protocol decoding, content based object extraction, or content based pattern matching; and
using the updated classification to determine whether a next data flow has previously been classified. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- receiving, by a processor, a data packet;
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8. A method comprising:
- receiving, by a processor, a data packet;
examining the data packet to initially classify the data packet including initially classifying the data packet using information included in a header portion of the data packet and separately initially classifying the data packet based on a content portion of the data packet where initially separately classifying the data packet based on the content includes determining an application associated with the packet;
determining flow instructions for processing the data packet based on the information in the header portion;
determining special processing instructions for processing the data packet based on the content portion and the application;
determining selected instructions from among the flow and special processing instructions for processing the data packet including determining, using the selected instructions, whether the data packet is associated with a data flow that has previously been classified;
if the data flow has previously been classified, performing at least one of content based protocol decoding, content based object extraction, or content based pattern matching; and
if the data flow has not previously been classified, processing the data packet based on whether the data flow is a known data flow;
where the special processing instructions include instructions to update the initial classification based on a processing result of one or more of the content based protocol decoding, content based object extraction, or content based pattern matching, and additional instructions to use the updated classification to determine whether the data flow has previously been classified. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
- receiving, by a processor, a data packet;
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12. A device comprising:
- a multi-mode classification engine for classifying received data packets, the multi-mode classification engine including;
a header classification engine for classifying data packets in accordance with header data associated with the data packets, the header classification engine generating first classification data; and
a content classification engine for initially classifying data packets in accordance with content of the data packets, the content classification engine generating second classification data including data about which application is associated with the data packets, the content classification engine is further configured to;
determine, using at least one of the header data or the content, whether the received data packets are associated with a data flow that has previously been classified; and
a security block for evaluating the data packets including evaluating the data packets using both of the first and the second classification data including the application data, the security block is further configured to;
perform content based pattern matching on the received data packets if the data flow has previously been classified; and
process the received data packets based on whether the data flow is a known data flow if the data flow has not previously been classified;
where the content classification engine is further operable to update the second classification data based on a processing result of one or more of content based protocol decoding, content based object extraction or content based pattern matching; and
where the security block is operable to evaluate the received data packets based on the updated second classification data. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
- a multi-mode classification engine for classifying received data packets, the multi-mode classification engine including;
Specification