Providing mobile device management functionalities for a managed browser

• US 8,850,049 B1
• Filed: 09/20/2013
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Qureshi, Waheed
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu, Le H
• Application Number:
  US14/032,439
• Publication Number:
  US 20140297859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 375 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/225, 709/229, 709/228, 709/224, 709/223, 455/456.3, 455/418, 455/419, 726/25
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2876 Handling of subscriber policies group policies management H04L41/0893
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/34 Signalling channels for network management communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/20 Traffic policing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/108 when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/205 involving negotiation or determination of the one or more network security mechanisms to be used, e.g. by negotiation between the client and the server or between peers or by selection according to the capabilities of the entities involved negotiation of communication capabilities H04L69/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 : Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/37 : Managing security policies for mobile devices or for controlling mobile applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 : Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/64 : using geofenced areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for providing mobile device management functionalities are presented. In various embodiments, a mobile device management agent may monitor state information associated with a mobile computing device. The monitored state information may be analyzed on the mobile computing device and/or by one or more policy management servers. In some instances, the one or more policy management servers may provide management information to the mobile computing device, and the management information may include one or more commands (which may, e.g., cause the mobile computing device to enforce one or more policies) and/or one or more policy updates. Subsequently, one or more policies may be enforced on the mobile computing device based on the monitored state information and/or based on the management information.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

loading, by a computing device, a managed browser;

applying, by the computing device, one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser, wherein applying the one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser includes providing state information to one or more policy management servers and receiving management information from the one or more policy management servers; and

enforcing one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is configured to control one or more functionalities of the computing device,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is received from a policy management server,

wherein the managed browser is configured to provide a managed mode in which one or more policies are enforced on the managed browser and an unmanaged mode in which the one or more policies are not enforced on the managed browser,

wherein the management information includes at least one command generated, for execution on the computing device, by the one or more policy management servers based on the one or more mobile device management policies and the state information provided to the one or more policy management servers, and

wherein the at least one command included in the management information is configured to cause one or more functions of the managed browser to be selectively disabled.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the management information further includes a policy update.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser includes:

determining that a first set of policies of one or more sets of policies is applicable to a user of the managed browser based on identity information associated with the user; and

determining to apply the first set of policies to the managed browser.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

restricting access to at least one network resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively disabling at least one function of the managed browser based on location information associated with the computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively disabling at least one function of the managed browser based on application inventory information associated with the computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively wiping one or more caches associated with the managed browser based on at least one cache-clearing policy of the one or more mobile device management policies.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is configured to be enforced based on the state information provided to the one or more policy management servers and based on a single sign-on (SSO) credential associated with at least one user of the computing device, and

wherein the SSO credential is an authentication credential that is configured to be used in accessing at least two different enterprise resources.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is obtained from an enterprise application store based on an identity of a user account associated with the SSO credential.

10. A computing device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to;

load a managed browser;

apply one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser, wherein applying the one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser includes providing state information to one or more policy management servers and receiving management information from the one or more policy management servers; and

enforce one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is configured to control one or more functionalities of the computing device,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is received from a policy management server,

wherein the managed browser is configured to provide a managed mode in which one or more policies are enforced on the managed browser and an unmanaged mode in which the one or more policies are not enforced on the managed browser,

wherein the management information includes at least one command generated, for execution on the computing device, by the one or more policy management servers based on the one or more mobile device management policies and the state information provided to the one or more policy management servers, and

wherein the at least one command included in the management information is configured to cause one or more functions of the managed browser to be selectively disabled.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the management information further includes a policy update.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein applying the one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser includes:

determining that a first set of policies of one or more sets of policies is applicable to a user of the managed browser based on identity information associated with the user; and

determining to apply the first set of policies to the managed browser,

wherein a first set of policies is applied to the managed browser when the user is part of a first group within an enterprise, and a second set of policies different from the first set of policies is applied to the managed browser when the user is part of a second group within the enterprise.

13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

restricting access to at least one network resource by blocking access to at least one enterprise resource that is accessible via at least one private network.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively disabling at least one function of the managed browser based on location information associated with the computing device,

wherein at least one location-based policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is configured to limit the managed browser'"'"'s access to at least one specific enterprise resource based on a location of the computing device.

15. The computing device of claim 10, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively disabling at least one function of the managed browser based on application inventory information associated with the computing device,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is configured to limit the managed browser'"'"'s access to at least one specific enterprise resource based on the application inventory information indicating that at least one specific application is present on the computing device.

16. The computing device of claim 10, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively wiping one or more caches associated with the managed browser based on at least one cache-clearing policy of the one or more mobile device management policies,

wherein selectively wiping the one or more caches associated with the managed browser includes deleting managed data included in the one or more caches while not deleting unmanaged data included in the one or more caches.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause at least one computing device to:

load a managed browser;

apply one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser, wherein applying the one or more mobile device management policies to the managed browser includes providing state information to one or more policy management servers and receiving management information from the one or more policy management servers; and

enforce one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is configured to control one or more functionalities of the at least one computing device,

wherein at least one policy of the one or more mobile device management policies is received from a policy management server,

wherein the managed browser is configured to provide a managed mode in which one or more policies are enforced on the managed browser and an unmanaged mode in which the one or more policies are not enforced on the managed browser,

wherein the management information includes at least one command generated, for execution on the at least one computing device, by the one or more policy management servers based on the one or more mobile device management policies and the state information provided to the one or more policy management servers, and

wherein the at least one command included in the management information is configured to cause one or more functions of the managed browser to be selectively disabled.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

restricting access to at least one network resource.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively disabling at least one function of the managed browser based on location information associated with the at least one computing device.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein enforcing the one or more behavior limitations on the managed browser includes:

selectively disabling at least one function of the managed browser based on application inventory information associated with the at least one computing device.