Sandboxed daemon process invocation through HTTP

• US 8,825,748 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2011
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sng, Swee Huat, Yang, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US13/176,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20130013665A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/202, 709/219, 709/225, 709/227, 726/26, 726/2
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/541 Client-server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space

Abstract

Methods and devices for initiating, by a client, a set of one or more applications, wherein each initiated application is associated with an Uniform Resource Locator (URL), and wherein the initiating is based on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to a computer host having a server. The methods and devices further executing an application from the set of one or more applications, based on a rule set, in a processing environment limiting the functionality of the initiated application, and wherein the application is executed in the background of an operating system of the server based on the rule set.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

initiating, by a client, a set of one or more applications, wherein the initiating is based on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to a computer host having a server;

assigning, by the server, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to each initiated application thereby associating each initiated application with the URL;

determining, by the server, a rule set based on the association of the initiated application and the URL, wherein the rule set is defined as at least one of;

per application, per set of applications, and per server; and

executing an application from the set of one or more applications, based on the rule set, in a processing environment limiting the functionality of the initiated application; and

wherein the application is executed in the background of an operating system of the server based on the rule set and without returning a response to the client.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the client is external to the server.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the client is disposed outside a network firewall.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the server is a multifunction peripheral (MFP) device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the client is a multifunction peripheral (MFP) device.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the MFP device comprises a web application hosting platform.

7. A method comprising:

invoking, by a server of a computer host, via a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request from a client, a set of one or more applications, each invoked application associated with an Uniform Resource Locator (URL);

assigning, by the server, the URL to each initiated application of the set of one or more applications thereby associating each initiated application with the URL;

determining, by the server, a rule set based on the association of the initiated application and the URL, wherein the rule set is defined as at least one of;

per application, per set of applications, and per server; and

executing, by the server, an application from the set of one or more applications, based on the rule set, in an environment limiting the functionality of the executed application;

wherein the application is executed in the background of an operating system of the server based on the rule set and without returning a response to the client.

8. A device comprising:

a processor and addressable memory comprising a set of one or more applications, wherein the processor is configured to;

initiate a selected one or more applications of the set of one or more applications, wherein the selection of the one or more applications is based on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request from a client;

assign, by a server, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to each selected application thereby associating each selected application with the URL;

determine, by the server, a rule set based on the association of the initiated application and the URL, wherein the rule set is defined as at least one of;

per application, per set of applications, and per server; and

execute an application from the set of one or more applications, based on the rule set, in a processing environment limiting the functionality of the initiated application; and

wherein the application is executable in the background of an operating system of the device based on the rule set and without returning a response to the client.

9. The device of claim 8 wherein the client is external to the device.

10. The device of claim 8 wherein the client is disposed outside a network firewall.

11. The device of claim 8 wherein the device is a multifunction peripheral (MFP) device.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein the device is a multifunction peripheral (MFP) device, and wherein the processor hosts the client.

13. The device of claim 11 wherein the MFP device comprises a web application hosting platform.

14. A system comprising:

a server device, operably coupled to a client device via a communication medium, the server device configured to execute a set of one or more applications, the device comprising;

a memory configured to store the set of one or more applications;

a processor configured to;

initiate a selected one or more applications of the set of one or more applications, wherein the selection of the one or more applications is based on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request from a client; and

assign a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to each selected application thereby associating each selected application with the URL;

determine a rule set based on the association of the selected application and the URL, wherein the rule set is defined as at least one of;

per application, per set of applications, and per server; and

execute an application from the set of one or more applications, based on a rule set, in an environment limiting the functionality of the initiated application; and

wherein the application is executable in the background of an operating system of the server based on the rule set and without returning a response to the client.

15. A method comprising:

initiating, by a first multifunction peripheral (MFP) device, a set of one or more applications, wherein the initiating is based on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to a second MFP;

executing an application from a set of one or more applications, based on a rule set, in a processing environment limiting the functionality of the initiated application;

wherein the application is executed in the background of an operating system of the server based on the rule set; and

wherein executing the application is to invoke a long-lived application, selected from the set of one or more applications, wherein the executed application performs monitoring of a set of print functions and a set of scan functions on the MFP devices.

16. A method comprising:

initiating, by a client, a set of one or more applications, wherein the initiating is based on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to a computer host having a server;

assigning, by the server, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to each initiated application thereby associating each initiated application with the URL;

determining, by the server, a rule set based on the association of the initiated application and the URL, wherein the rule set is defined as at least one of;

per application, per set of applications, and per server; and

executing an application from the set of one or more applications, based on the rule set, in a processing environment limiting the functionality of the initiated application;

wherein the application is executed in the background of an operating system of the server based on the rule set wherein the executed application is a daemon process running on the server, and wherein the daemon process is triggered by the client in a passive manner.