Systems and methods for fine grain policy driven cookie proxying

• US 8,090,877 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2009
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Agarwal, Puneet, Adhya, Saibal Kumar, Harris, James, Thirunarayanan, Srinivasan
• Primary Examiner(s): DONAGHUE, LARRY D
• Application Number:
  US12/360,014
• Publication Number:
  US 20090193129A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 709/246, 709/219
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/166 at the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

The present solution enables a client that is not configured to use cookies to access resources of the server that uses cookies for communications with the clients. An intermediary deployed between a client and a server intercepts and modifies transmissions between the client and the server to compensate for the mismatch in configuration of the cookies between the client and the server. The present disclosure relates to a method for managing cookies by an intermediary for a client. An intermediary receives a response from a server to a request of a client. The response may comprise a uniform resource locator (URL) and a cookie. The intermediary may modify the response by removing the cookie from the response and inserting a unique client identifier into the URL. The intermediary may store the removed cookie in association with the unique client identifier and forward the modified response to the client.

Claims

1. A method for managing cookies by an intermediary for a client, the method comprising:

receiving, by an intermediary, a response from a server to a request of a client, the response comprising a URL and a cookie;

matching, by a cookie manager, one or more values associated with the cookie comprised by the response to a cookie from a plurality of cookies;

modifying, by the intermediary, the response by removing the cookie from the response and inserting a unique client identifier into the URL;

storing, by the intermediary, the removed cookie in association with the unique client identifier; and

forwarding, by the intermediary, the modified response to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying is in response to the matching.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the intermediary, a second request from the client, the second request comprising a request URL; and

matching, by the cookie manager, the request URL with the removed cookie from a plurality of cookies.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

modifying, by the intermediary, the request URL by adding the removed cookie; and

forwarding, by the intermediary, the modified request URL to the server.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of cookies are associated with at least one of a domain name or at least one path provided by the request URL.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving, by the intermediary, one or more name value pairs from the cookie manager in response to the matching.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the response comprises a plurality of cookies and the modified response comprises a plurality of client identifiers associated with the plurality of cookies.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique client identifier is a cookie proxy session cookie comprising a portion of the cookie.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the intermediary, the request from the client, the request comprising a cookie proxy session cookie, the cookie proxy session cookie comprising a portion of the cookie;

matching, by the intermediary, the cookie proxy session cookie to the cookie;

modifying, by the intermediary, the request by removing the cookie proxy session cookie from the request and adding the cookie to the request; and

forwarding, by the intermediary, the modified request to the server.

10. An intermediary for managing cookies using a proxy on a network, the intermediary comprising:

a packet engine of an intermediary receives a response from a server to a request of a client, the response comprising a URL and a cookie;

a cookie manager of the intermediary for matching one or more values from the response associated with the cookie to a cookie from a plurality of cookies;

a cookie proxy of the intermediary for modifying the response by removing the cookie from the response and inserting a unique client identifier into the URL, the cookie manager storing the removed cookie in association with the unique client identifier; and

the intermediary for forwarding the modified response to the client.

11. The intermediary of claim 10, wherein the modifying is in response to the matching.

12. The intermediary of claim 10, wherein the packet engine receives a second request from the client, the second request comprising a request URL and the cookie manager matches the request URL with the removed cookie from a plurality of cookies.

13. The intermediary of claim 12, wherein the intermediary:

modifies the request URL by adding the removed cookie; and

forwards the modified request URL to the server.

14. The intermediary of claim 12, wherein the plurality of cookies are associated with at least one of a domain name or at least one path provided by the request URL.

15. The intermediary of claim 12, wherein the intermediary receives one or more name value pairs from the cookie manager in response to the matching.

16. The intermediary of claim 10, wherein the response comprises a plurality of cookies and the modified response comprises a plurality of client identifiers associated with the plurality of cookies.

17. The intermediary of claim 10, wherein the unique client identifier is a cookie proxy session cookie comprising a portion of the information comprised by the cookie.

18. The intermediary of claim 10, wherein the intermediary:

receives the request from the client, the request comprising a cookie proxy session cookie, the cookie proxy session cookie comprising a portion of the cookie;

matches the cookie proxy session cookie to the cookie;

modifies the request by removing the cookie proxy session cookie from the request and adding the cookie to the request; and

forwards the modified request to the server.