Blacklisting of fault generating software code

• US 9,298,585 B1
• Filed: 01/15/2014
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sharp, Chris, Shield, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US14/156,394
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 714/37, 714/38.1, 714/38.11, 714/38.12, 714/38.14, 714/4.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0706 the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

Techniques for blacklisting of fault generating software code are provided. An example method includes receiving crash reports of a plurality of browsers, a crash report including an identification of one or more executables related to a software crash of a browser, wherein software code of the executables is included in a memory space of the browser during the software crash, analyzing the crash reports of the browsers to determine a browser component affected by software code of an executable included in respective memory spaces of the browsers to cause one or more software crashes of the browsers, computing, for the executable, a fault level based on a number of crashes of the browser component that is associated with the executable and a number of crashes of the browser component independent of the executable, and including an identifier representing the executable in a list based on the determined fault level.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, over a network, respective crash reports for a plurality of browsers, each crash report including an identification of one or more executables related to a software crash of one of the plurality of browsers, wherein software code of the one or more executables is included in a memory space of the one of the plurality of browsers during the software crash;

analyzing the plurality of received crash reports together to determine a browser component affected by software code of an executable included in respective memory spaces of the plurality of browsers to cause one or more software crashes of the browsers;

computing, for the executable, a fault level based on at least a number of crashes of the browser component that is associated with the executable and a number of crashes of the browser component independent of the executable; and

including an identifier representing the executable in a list of blacklisted executable identifiers based on the determined fault level of the executable.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the list of the blacklisted executables to the browsers, wherein the browsers prevent future inclusion of the software code of the blacklisted executables into respective memory spaces of the browsers.

3. The method of claim 1, the analyzing further comprising:

identifying, from the crash reports, one or more approved executables supporting operation of the browsers, wherein the identified approved executables are proscribed from inclusion in the list of blacklisted executable identifiers.

4. The method of claim 1, the computing further comprising:

computing a ratio of the number of crashes of the browser component that are associated with the executable to the number of crashes of the browser component independent of the executable; and

determining the fault level based on the ratio with consideration to a total number of crashes of the browser component.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the fault level has traversed a threshold fault level; and

including the identifier representing the executable in a list of blacklisted executable identifiers when the fault level has traversed the threshold fault level.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading a browser identifier from a crash report; and

storing the browser identifier in a data structure, wherein the data structure includes one or more browser identifiers identifying the plurality of browsers.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

counting unique identifiers in the data structure; and

determining a number of browser crashes based on the count.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the browser component includes at least one of a browser process and a rendering engine process.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, over a network, respective crash reports for a plurality of browsers, each crash report including an identification of one or more executables related to a software crash of one of the plurality of browsers, wherein software code of the one or more executables is included in a memory space of the one of the plurality of browsers during the software crash;

analyzing plurality of received crash reports together to determine a browser component affected by software code of an executable included in respective memory spaces of the plurality of browsers to cause one or more software crashes of the browsers;

computing, for the executable, a fault level based on at least a number of crashes of the browser component that is associated with the executable and a number of crashes of the browser component independent of the executable; and

including an identifier representing the executable in a list of blacklisted executable identifiers based on the determined fault level of the executable.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, the operations further comprising:

providing the list of the blacklisted executables to the browsers, wherein the browsers prevent future inclusion of the software code of the blacklisted executables into respective memory spaces of the browsers.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, the analyzing further comprising:

identifying, from the crash reports, one or more approved executables supporting operation of the browsers, wherein the identified approved executables are proscribed from inclusion in the list of blacklisted executable identifiers.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, the computing further comprising:

computing a ratio of the number of crashes of the browser component that are associated with the executable to the number of crashes of the browser component independent of the executable; and

determining the fault level based on the ratio with consideration to a total number of crashes of the browser component.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, the operations further comprising:

determining if the fault level has traversed a threshold fault level; and

including the identifier representing the executable in a list of blacklisted executable identifiers when the fault level has traversed the threshold fault level.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, the operations further comprising:

reading a browser identifier from a crash report; and

storing the browser identifier in a data structure, wherein the data structure includes one or more browser identifiers identifying the plurality of browsers.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

counting unique identifiers in the data structure; and

determining a number of browser crashes based on the count.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the browser component includes at least one of a browser process and a rendering engine process.

17. A system comprising:

a memory comprising instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to;

receive, over a network, respective crash reports for a plurality of web applications configured to retrieve content from a web server, each crash report including an identification of one or more executables related to a software crash of one of the plurality of web applications, wherein software code of the one or more executables is included in a memory space of the one of the plurality of web applications during the software crash;

analyze the plurality of received crash reports of the web applications together to determine a web application component affected by software code of an executable included in respective memory spaces of the plurality of web applications to cause one or more software crashes of the web applications;

compute, for the executable, a fault level based on at least a number of crashes of the application component that is associated with the executable and a number of crashes of the application component independent of the executable; and

include an identifier representing the executable in a list of blacklisted executable identifiers based on the determined fault level of the executable.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

provide the list of the blacklisted executables to the web applications, wherein the web applications prevent future inclusion of the software code of the blacklisted executables into respective memory spaces of the web applications.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

identify, from the crash report, one or more approved executables supporting operation of the web applications, wherein the identified approved executables are proscribed from inclusion in the list of blacklisted executable identifiers.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:

compute a ratio of the number of crashes of the web application component that are associated with the executable to the number of crashes of the web application component independent of the executable; and

determine the fault level based on the ratio with consideration to a total number of crashes of the web application component.