Disabling administrative access to computing resources

• US 9,432,374 B1
• Filed: 08/23/2013
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brandwine, Eric Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Ellen
• Application Number:
  US13/974,407
• Time in Patent Office: 1,103 Days
• Field of Search: 726/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/28 Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for disabling administrative access to computing resources. A customer request is obtained to disable administrative access of a provider to one or more computing devices. The provider supplies computing resources of the at least one computing device to the customer. The administrative access of the provider to the computing devices is disabled in response to the request. The administrative access of the provider remains disabled until a reset of the computing devices is performed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in a computing device, wherein when executed the program causes the computing device to at least:

receive a request from a customer to disable administrative access of a service provider to at least a machine instance of the customer, the machine instance being executed on a server computing device, wherein the server computing device is operated by the service provider;

disable the administrative access in response to the request; and

wherein the administrative access remains irrevocably disabled until a reset of the server computing device is performed.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein when executed the program further causes the computing device to at least verify that the customer has permission to disable the administrative access.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein an interactive login capability for at least one administrative user is disabled when the administrative access is disabled.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein an administrative monitoring subsystem of the server computing device remains active when the administrative access is disabled.

5. A system, comprising:

a server computing device; and

a program executable in the server computing device, wherein when executed the program causes the server computing device to at least;

revoke a privilege of an administrator of the server computing device in response to a request from a user associated with a first organization, the administrator being associated with a second organization that provides a machine instance on the server computing device to the first organization; and

wherein the administrator is capable of regaining the privilege only through an interruption in operation of the server computing device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the privilege relates to administrative access by the administrator to the server computing device.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the privilege includes a hypervisor operation capability for the administrator.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the interruption in operation comprises a reset of the server computing device.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the request is received along with another request by the user to launch the machine instance.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the request is received via a network by a service executable in the server computing device.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the server computing device is further configured to at least revoke the privilege of all administrators of the server computing device associated with the second organization in response to the request.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein the first organization is provided with the machine instance for a fee.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the second organization provides the first organization with exclusive use of the server computing device for launching machine instances.

14. The system of claim 5, wherein when executed the program further causes the server computing device to at least deny the request when the second organization has not enabled a privilege revocation feature for the first organization.

15. The system of claim 5, wherein when executed the program further causes the server computing device to at least:

receive a request from the administrator to perform a task;

determine whether the task requires the privilege; and

deny the request from the administrator when the privilege is revoked.

16. The system of claim 5, wherein the privilege remains revoked while the machine instance of the first organization is on the server computing device.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving a request from a customer to disable administrative access of a provider to a machine instance executed in a server computing device;

disabling the administrative access of the provider to the server computing device in response to the request; and

wherein the administrative access of the provider to the server computing device remains disabled until a reset of the server computing device is performed.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining that the customer has permission to disable the administrative access in response to the request before disabling the administrative access.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein disabling the administrative access further comprises disabling the administrative access to the server computing device by all administrative users associated with the provider.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the customer retains administrative access to the machine instance after the administrative access of the provider is disabled.