Secure layered iterative gateway

• US 9,203,802 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2015
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Johns Hopkins University
• Original Assignee: Johns Hopkins University
• Inventors: Byrkit, Mark E., Murray, Francis W.
• Primary Examiner(s): HENNING, MATTHEW T
• Application Number:
  US14/604,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20150222596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 309 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/567 using dedicated hardware
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0263 Rule management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1425 Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 Vulnerability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/102 Gateways arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways, H04L12/66

Abstract

In methods and a device for mitigating against cyber-attack on a network, a distributed intermediary device is placed into a network between computers or network nodes of the network to mitigate cyber-attacks between the computers or nodes of a network from remote systems. Threats are assessed by utilizing internal information assurance mechanisms of the device to detect such cyber-attacks without requiring external modification of the software and/or hardware of the computers or nodes of the network to be protected. The device prevents attacks at the platform level against the OS and network resources.

Claims

1. A system for identifying malware activity between one of computers and network nodes of a network via an intermediary distributed device, the system comprising:

a secure layered iterative gateway device (SLIG) comprising;

at least two or more gateway devices configured to;

i) provide packet routing access across the intermediary distributed device between said computers or network nodes,

ii) use internal sensors to determine if changes have occurred to the operating system, system memory or firmware associated with network interface cards, hard drives and video cards of the at least two or more gateway devices,

iii) produce a hash of the state of the at least two or more gateway devices upon deactivation of the at least two or more gateway devices,

an attestation server configured to;

i) receive messages from each of the at least two or more gateway devices at the beginning of each boot cycle,

ii) examine the hashes produced by the at least two or more gateway devices upon de-activation,

a physical machine resource manager configured to;

i) open the intermediary network device to network traffic,

ii) control traffic flow from one gateway network device to a next gateway network device,

iii) continuously monitor network connections to determine when the gateway devices are available to be opened.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the physical machine resource manager is further configured to monitor the state of network connections for power.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource manage is further configured to recognize an active port for the at least two gateway devices.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the physical machine resource manager is further configured to receive from the at least two gateway devices initialization parameters that include allowed port protocols and any temporal filtering parameters, packet size constraints and gateway state.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the physical machine resource manager is further configured to send a set of initialization parameters to a gateway computer device whose state is recognized by the resource manager as being active.