Methods and apparatus for adaptively determining trust in client-server environments

• US 8,108,910 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2007
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ServiceNow Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Conner, William G. II, Iyengar, Arun Kwangil, Mikalsen, Thomas A., Rouvellou, Isabelle Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baum, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US11/873,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20090100504A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• Field of Search: 726/3
• US Class Current: 726/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for adaptively determining trust in client-server environments. By way of example, a method for assigning a trust level to a client in a client-server environment including at least one client communicating with a plurality of servers includes the following steps. Information associated with a server s1 and a server s2 different from s1 is obtained regarding a request r1 sent by a client and received by s1 and a request r2 sent by the client and received by s2. The obtained information is utilized to assign at least one trust level to the client.

Claims

1. In a client-server environment comprising at least one client communicating with a plurality of servers, a method for assigning a trust level to a client, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining trust information associated with a server s1 providing a first service and a server s2 providing a second service different from s1, with regard to a request r1 sent by a client and received by s1 and a request r2 sent by the client and received by s2; and

aggregating the obtained trust information from s1 and s2 with regard to the client to assign at least one trust level to said client, wherein a trust level is assigned by a server X to a client c using a formula;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one trust level is used to assign a level of access to the client by at least one of the servers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one trust level is used to assign a level of service to the client by at least one of the servers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one trust level is computed by considering trust information from previous requests to the servers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one trust level is computed by considering information summarizing trust information from previous requests to said servers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two servers use different methods for computing trust levels from the same trust information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two different trust levels are computed for the client using a same method at different times.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a trust level is assigned by a server j to a client c using a formula:

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a trust level is assigned by a server W to a client c using a formula:

TRUST(c,W)=Pos(c,P)−

Neg(c,P)

wherein

Pos(c,i)=number of positive feedback units assigned to client c by server class i, and

Neg(c,i)=number of negative feedback units assigned to client c by server class i.

10. An article of manufacture for assigning a trust level to a client in a client-server environment comprising at least one client communicating with a plurality of servers, the article comprising a non-transitory computer readable tangible storage medium including one or more programs which when executed by a computer perform the steps of claim 1.

11. In a client-server environment comprising at least one client communicating with a plurality of servers, apparatus for assigning a trust level to a client, the apparatus comprising:

one or more memories; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories and operative to;

(i) obtain trust information associated with a server s1 providing a first service and a server s2 providing a second service, different from s1, with regard to a request r1 sent by a client and received by s1 and a request r2 sent by the client and received by s2; and

(ii) aggregate the obtained trust information from s1 and s2 with regard to the client to assign at least one trust level to said client, wherein a trust level is assigned by a server X to a client c using a formula;

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said at least one trust level is used to assign a level of access to said client by at least one of said servers.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least one trust level is used to assign a level of service to said client by at least one of said servers.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least one trust level is computed by considering trust information from previous requests to said servers.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least one trust level is computed by considering information summarizing trust information from previous requests to said servers.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least two servers use different methods for computing trust levels from the same trust information.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least two different trust levels are computed for the client using a same method at different times.

18. In a client-server environment comprising at least one client communicating with a plurality of servers, a method for assigning a trust level to a client, comprising the steps of:

the client sending requests to the plurality of servers in which at least one request r1 is received by a server s1 providing a first service and at least one request r2 is received by a server s2 providing a second service different from s1;

sharing trust information between s1 and s2 regarding r1 and r2 of said client; and

aggregating the shared trust information between s1 and s2 with regard to the client to assign at least one trust level to the client, wherein a trust level is assigned by a server X to a client c using a formula;

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one trust level is used to assign at least one of a level of access and a level of service to the client by at least one of the servers.