Method and apparatus for safe web browsing

• US 8,903,941 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2009
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gen Digital Inc.
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaul, Prateek
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David
• Application Number:
  US12/558,971
• Time in Patent Office: 1,905 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/225, 709/203, 709/217, 726 11- 13, 726 22- 25
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/54 by adding security routines or objects to programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/566 Dynamic detection, i.e. detection performed at run-time, e.g. emulation, suspicious activities

Abstract

A method and apparatus for safe web browsing is disclosed. More specifically, the method and apparatus comprises receiving a webpage associated with a uniform resource locator (URL) access request. The webpage may further comprise a referenced link or script. A determination is made if any of the URL, the referenced link or script within the webpage are deemed unacceptable. The webpage is transcoded to block access to at least one of the URL, the referenced link or script deemed unacceptable. The transcoded webpage is sent to a computer that requested access to the URL.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of safe web browsing, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing system comprising at least one processor within a transcoding server, the method comprising:

receiving a webpage associated with a uniform resource locator (URL), the webpage comprising at least one of a referenced link or a script;

displaying the webpage with at least one of links or scripts deactivated;

determining if any of the URL, the referenced link, or the script are deemed unacceptable, wherein determining if any of the URL, the referenced link, or the script are deemed unacceptable comprises;

identifying at least a portion of at least one of the URL, the referenced link, or the script;

comparing the identified at least a portion to a database comprising information representative of web resources identified as unsafe and information representative of user preferences identified by a user, the user being associated with a user device that requested access to the webpage associated with the URL; and

if the identified at least a portion matches information in the database, deciding whether the matching URL, referenced link, or script is unacceptable;

transcoding the webpage to block access to content associated with any of the URL, the referenced link, or the script that are deemed unacceptable;

sending the transcoded webpage to the user device; and

replacing the displayed webpage with the transcoded webpage.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a URL access request containing the URL, where the URL access request is communicated from the user device to the transcoding server, and sending the URL access request to enable the transcoding server to receive the webpage.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein transcoding comprises performing at least one of:

(a) deactivating at least one of a link to the URL, the referenced link, or the script;

(b) redirecting at least one of a link to the URL, the referenced link, or the script to a safe webpage; and

(c) redirecting the referenced link to access the transcoding server when the referenced link is selected.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein transcoding further comprises updating HTML code of the webpage to cause the deactivating or redirecting.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the information representative of user preferences comprises URLs selected by the user.

6. A computer-implemented method of safe web browsing, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing system comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

generating a URL access request for a webpage;

sending the URL access request to a network;

receiving and displaying the webpage with at least one of links or scripts deactivated;

communicating information related to the URL access request to a transcoding server;

receiving a transcoded webpage from the transcoding server corresponding to the webpage that has been processed to at least one of (a) block access to links to unacceptable URLs or (b) block execution of an unacceptable script, wherein the unacceptable URLs or the unacceptable script are determined by;

identifying at least a portion of at least one of the URL or the script;

comparing the identified at least a portion to a database comprising information representative of web resources identified as unsafe and information representative of user preferences identified by a user; and

if the identified at least a portion matches information in the database, deciding whether the matching URL or script is unacceptable;

replacing the displayed webpage with the transcoded webpage when the transcoded webpage is received; and

displaying the transcoded webpage.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising adding the information representative of user preferences to the database, the information comprising URLs or scripts deemed unacceptable by the user.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein communicating the URL access request to the transcoding server using a browser component.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the browser component is an add-on, extension or plug-in for a browser.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising appending a tag to the URL access request.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the tag comprises information regarding routing the webpage associated with the URL access request to the transcoding server.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the tag further comprises information regarding a user device that requested access to the URL.

13. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

receiving, in response to sending the URL access request, the webpage associated with the requested URL; and

sending the webpage to the transcoding server for transcoding.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising preventing the webpage from being displayed until the transcoded webpage is received.

15. Apparatus for providing safe web browsing, comprising:

a browser interface module for receiving a webpage associated with a uniform resource locator (URL), the webpage comprising a referenced link or a script;

a database comprising information representative of web resources identified as unsafe and information representative of user preferences identified by a user, the database information comprising at least one of URLs or scripts used in determining if any of the URL, the referenced link, or the script are deemed unacceptable, wherein determining if any of the URL, the referenced link, or the script are deemed unacceptable comprises;

identifying at least a portion of at least one of the URL, the referenced link, or the script;

comparing the identified at least a portion to the database; and

if the identified at least a portion matches information in the database, deciding whether the matching URL, referenced link, or script is unacceptable; and

a transcoding module comprising at least one computer processor for transcoding the webpage to block access to any of the URL, the referenced link or script deemed unacceptable and for sending the transcoded webpage to a user device that requested access to the webpage associated with the URL, wherein the webpage is first received and displayed with at least one of a link or script deactivated, and wherein the displayed webpage is replaced with the transcoded webpage.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising a customization module for customizing a procedure for determining which at least one link or script is deemed unacceptable.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the database comprises at least one of a URL database or a script database.

18. Apparatus for providing safe web browsing, comprising:

a user device for generating and communicating a Unified Resource Locator (URL) access request to a network, wherein the URL access request is associated with a webpage comprising at least one of a referenced link or a script located at the URL, receiving and displaying the webpage with at least one of links or scripts deactivated, and replacing the displayed webpage with a transcoded webpage when the transcoded webpage is received; and

a transcoding server, coupled to the network, for receiving information regarding the URL access request, receiving the webpage associated with the URL, determining if any of the URL, the referenced link, or the script are deemed unacceptable, and transcoding the webpage to block access to any URL, link or script deemed unacceptable, wherein determining if any of the URL, the referenced link, or the script are deemed unacceptable comprises;

identifying at least a portion of at least one of the URL, the referenced link, or the script;

comparing the identified at least a portion to a database comprising information representative of web resources identified as unsafe and information representative of user preferences identified by a user; and

if the identified at least a portion matches information in the database, deciding whether the matching URL, referenced link, or script is unacceptable.