Identifying attributes of aggregated data

• US 8,250,651 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Huang, Song, Dang, Yingnong, Hou, Xiaohui, Zhang, Dongmei, Wang, Jian
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Yin-Chen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Holder, Bradley
• Application Number:
  US11/823,546
• Publication Number:
  US 20090007271A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,881 Days
• Field of Search: 726/22, 726/25
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities

Abstract

A method for identifying a portion of aggregated software security data is described. The method includes accessing aggregated data associated with software vulnerabilities retrieved from a plurality of on-line sources. The method further includes searching a portion of the aggregated data for an exact match to a particular attribute of the data and searching the portion of the aggregated data for one or more partial matches associated with the particular attribute. The method also includes associating the portion of the data with the particular attribute based on the exact match of one or more of the partial matches.

Claims

1. A method for identifying attributes of a portion of aggregated security data, the method comprising:

aggregating security data that is retrieved by real-time crawlers from a plurality of on-line sources into a single location to provide aggregated security data that is associated with at least one of one or more vulnerabilities or one or more security issues;

selecting, by a computing device, a text string from the aggregated security data;

searching a portion of the selected text string for an exact match with a particular attribute, the particular attribute being included in a plurality of attributes that includes a name of a product and a version of the product;

searching the portion of the selected text string for a partial match with the particular attribute, the partial match being determined based on a probability exceeding a threshold value, the probability being determined by a finite state machine, the partial match taking into consideration misspellings, missing text, abbreviations, and synonyms;

associating the selected text string in its entirety with the particular attribute based on the exact match or the partial match of the portion of the selected text string;

determining that a user searches for information related to the particular attribute; and

providing the entirety of the selected text string for the user, based on the selected text string in its entirety being associated with the particular attribute and further based on a rank of the selected text string as compared to one or more other text strings, in response to determining that the user searches for the information, the rank indicating how closely the portion of the selected text string matches the particular attribute, the rank being relatively higher if the selected text string includes the exact match, the rank being relatively lower if the selected text string includes the partial match but not the exact match.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a plurality of components of said particular attribute; and

associating the partial match with one or more components of the plurality of components.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

determining a probability that one or more components of the plurality of components are associated with the partial match.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the entirety of the selected text string comprises:

providing the entirety of the selected text string further based on a trust rating associated with a site from which the selected text string is accessed, the trust rating indicating a level of trust that users associate with the site.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected text string includes a message posting from an on-line site;

and

wherein the particular attribute includes the name of the product.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

organizing the selected text string in the aggregated security data based on the particular attribute.

7. At least one data storage device comprising instructions that when executed cause a computer system to perform steps comprising:

aggregating security data that is retrieved by real-time crawlers from a plurality of on-line sources into a single location to provide aggregated security data that is associated with at least one of one or more vulnerabilities or one or more security issues;

searching a portion of a selected text string that is selected from the aggregated security data for an exact match to a particular attribute, the particular attribute being included in a plurality of attributes that includes a name of a product and a version of the product;

searching the portion of the selected text string for a partial match with the particular attribute, the partial match being determined based on a probability exceeding a threshold value, the probability being determined by a finite state machine, the partial match taking into consideration misspellings, missing text, abbreviations, and synonyms;

associating the selected text string in its entirety with the particular attribute based on the exact match or the partial match of the portion of the selected text string;

determining that a user searches for information related to the particular attribute; and

providing the entirety of the selected text string for the user, based on the selected text string in its entirety being associated with the particular attribute and further based on a rank of the selected text string as compared to one or more other text strings, in response to determining that the user searches for the information, the rank indicating how closely the portion of the selected text string matches the particular attribute, the rank being relatively higher if the selected text string includes the exact match, the rank being relatively lower if the selected text string includes the partial match but not the exact match.

8. The at least one data storage device of claim 7, wherein the instructions when executed cause the computer system to organize a portion of said aggregated security data according to said particular attribute.

9. The at least one data storage device of claim 7, wherein the instructions when executed cause the computer system to perform the steps further comprising:

determining a plurality of components of the particular attribute; and

associating the partial match with one or more components of the plurality of components.

10. The at least one data storage device of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the computer system to determine a probability that one or more components of the plurality of components are associated with the partial match.

11. The at least one data storage device of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed cause the computer system to reorder one or more components of the plurality of components and map to a standard form that complies with a uniformed coding system of the particular attribute.

12. The at least one data storage device of claim 7, wherein the instructions for providing the entirety of the selected text string comprise:

instructions for providing the entirety of the selected text string further based on a trust rating associated with a site from which the selected text string is accessed, the trust rating indicating a level of trust that users associate with the site.

13. The at least one data storage device of claim 7, wherein the selected text string includes a message posting from an on-line site;

and

wherein the particular attribute includes the name of the product.

14. A system for enabling a graphical representation of software security data comprising:

a computing device;

a data collector module configured for operating on the computing device and for selecting aggregated security data retrieved by real-time crawlers from a plurality of on-line sources, the aggregated security data being associated with at least one of one or more vulnerabilities or one or more security issues;

an exact match data searcher module configured for operating on the computing device and for searching a portion of a selected text string that is selected from the aggregated security data for an exact match to a particular attribute, the particular attribute being included in a plurality of attributes that includes a product name and a product version;

a partial match data searcher module configured for operating on the computing device and for searching the portion of the selected text string for a partial match with the particular attribute, the partial match taking into consideration misspellings, missing text, abbreviations, and synonyms;

a key word accessor configured to operate on the computing device and to determine the partial match based on a probability exceeding a threshold value, the probability being determined by a finite state machine; and

a data attribute associator module configured for operating on the computing device and for associating the selected text string in its entirety with the particular attribute based on the exact match or the partial match of the portion of the selected text string, the data attribute associator module further configured for determining that a user searches for information related to the particular attribute, and the data attribute associator module further configured for providing the entirety of the selected text string for the user based on the selected text string in its entirety being associated with the particular attribute and further based on a rank of the selected text string as compared to one or more other text strings in response to a determination that the user searches for the information, the rank indicating how closely the portion of the selected text string matches the particular attribute, the rank being relatively higher if the selected text string includes the exact match, the rank being relatively lower if the selected text string includes the partial match but not the exact match.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

a data component determiner configured to operate on the computing device and to determine a plurality of components of the particular attribute and to associate the partial match with one or more components of the plurality of components.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the data component determiner is further configured to determine a probability that one or more components of the plurality of components are associated with the partial match.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the data component determiner is further configured to reorder one or more components of the plurality of components and to map to a standard form that complies with a uniformed coding system of the particular attribute.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the selected text string includes a message posting from an on-line site;

and

wherein the particular attribute includes the name of the product.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the data attribute associator module is configured for providing the entirety of the selected text string for the user further based on a trust rating associated with a site from which the selected text string is accessed, the trust rating indicating a level of trust that users associate with the site.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the selected text string is organized in the aggregated security data based on the particular attribute.