Providing installer package information to a user

• US 8,677,346 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2011
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Griffin, Kent, Satish, Sourabh, Seshadri, Vijay, Wawda, Abubakar, Zhou, Jing
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US13/246,794
• Time in Patent Office: 903 Days
• Field of Search: 717168-177, 709203-204
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

Installer package information is presented to a user in response to an attempted installation of an application on an endpoint. The attempted installation is detected and the installer package is identified to an information server. The installer package may be identified using a hash key or other unique identifier. In response, the information server provides to the endpoint information associated with the identified installer package based on information received from a plurality of other endpoints. The endpoint may also provide installation and application information related to the installer package to the information server. In one embodiment, when the information server obtains more than the threshold amount of information for an installer package, the information server may analyze the information and provide the analysis to requesting endpoints. The analysis may include the risk or performance impact of the installer package, or the category or functionality of the application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of presenting installer package information to a user, comprising:

detecting, by an endpoint, an installation attempt of an application onto the endpoint, the attempted installation associated with an installer package;

in response to detecting the installation attempt, providing an identity of the installer package to an information server;

receiving installer package information from the information server, wherein the information server is configured to generate generates the installer package information based on information associated with the identified installer package received from a plurality of other endpoints if the information server stores more than a threshold of information associated with the identified installer package; and

presenting, by the endpoint, the received installer package information to the user prior to the installation of the application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received installer package information comprises information associated with at least one of:

components installed by the installer package, changes made to the endpoint by the installer package, a risk associated with the installer package, a performance impact associated with the installer package, an application category, an application functionality, and related applications.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing information associated with the identified installer package to the information server, wherein the information server is configured to incorporate the provided information into installer package information supplied to other endpoints.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying installer package information associated with the identified installer package comprises:

monitoring the endpoint during installation; and

identifying changes made to the endpoint by the installer package during the monitored installation.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the information server is configured to receive installer package information associated with the identified installer package from the plurality of other endpoints, to analyze the received installer package information, and to store the analysis.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein analyzing the received installer package information comprises at least one of:

identifying a risk associated with the installer package, identifying a performance impact associated with the installer package, identifying an application category and/or functionality associated with the installer package, and identifying applications related to the application associated with the installer package.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying an application category and/or functionality associated with the installer package further comprises:

identifying keywords associated with the received installer package information; and

querying an ontological mapping with the identified keywords to identify an application category and/or functionality, wherein the ontological mapping maps keywords to categories and/or functionalities.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the information server is configured to normalize the received installer package information into a uniform format and discard outlier received installer package information.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions for presenting installer package information to a user, the instructions performing steps comprising:

detecting, by an endpoint, an installation attempt of an application onto an the endpoint, the attempted installation associated with an installer package;

in response to detecting the installation attempt, providing an the identity of the installer package to an information server;

receiving installer package information from the information server, wherein the information server is configured to generate the installer package information based on information associated with the identified installer package received from a plurality of other endpoints if the information server stores more than a threshold of information associated with the identified installer package; and

presenting, by the endpoint, the received installer package information to the user prior to the installation of the application.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the received installer package information comprises information associated with at least one of:

components installed by the installer package, changes made to the endpoint by the installer package, a risk associated with the installer package, a performance impact associated with the installer package, an application category, an application functionality, and related applications.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, the instructions further performing steps comprising:

providing information associated with the identified installer package to the information server, wherein the information server is configured to incorporate the provided information into installer package information supplied to other endpoints.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein identifying installer package information associated with the identified installer package comprises:

monitoring the endpoint during installation; and

identifying changes made to the endpoint by the installer package during the monitored installation.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the information server is configured to receive installer package information associated with the identified installer package from the plurality of other endpoints, to analyze the received installer package information, and to store the analysis.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein analyzing the received installer package information comprises at least one of:

identifying a risk associated with the installer package, identifying a performance impact associated with the installer package, identifying an application category and/or functionality associated with the installer package, and identifying applications related to the application associated with the installer package.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein identifying an application category and/or functionality associated with the installer package further comprises:

identifying keywords associated with the received installer package information; and

querying an ontological mapping with the identified keywords to identify an application category and/or functionality, wherein the ontological mapping maps keywords to categories and/or functionalities.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the information server is configured to normalize the receive installer package information into a uniform format and discard outlier received installer package information.

17. An endpoint for presenting installer package information to a user, the endpoint comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions for performing steps comprising;

detecting, by the endpoint, an installation attempt of an application onto the endpoint, the attempted installation associated with an installer package;

in response to detecting the installation attempt, providing an identity of the installer package to an information server;

receiving installer package information from the information server, wherein the information server is configured to generate the installer package information based on information associated with the identified installer package received from a plurality of other endpoints if the information server stores more than a threshold of information associated with the identified installer package; and

presenting, by the endpoint, the received installer package information to the user prior to the installation of the application; and

a processor for executing the computer program instructions.

18. The endpoint of claim 17, wherein the computer program instructions are further for perform steps comprising:

providing information associated with the identified installer package to the information server, wherein the information server is configured to incorporate the provided information into installer package information supplied to other endpoints.