Preserving special characters in an encoded identifier

• US 11,134,063 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2016
• Issued: 09/28/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Reshadi, Mehrdad, Gaunker, Rajaram, Kolam, Hariharan, Venkat, Raghu Batta
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaifer Harriman, Dant B
• Application Number:
  US15/374,645
• Publication Number:
  US 20170171168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,754 Days
• Field of Search: 726 26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2119 Authenticating web pages, e.g. with suspicious links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0414 during transmission, i.e. party's identity is protected against eavesdropping, e.g. by using temporary identifiers, but is known to the other party or parties involved in the communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions

Abstract

A resource identifier to be encoded is detected. One or more special characters in the detected resource identifier are identified. The detected resource identifier is encoded at least in part by preserving the identified one or more special characters in a resulting encoded resource identifier corresponding to the detected resource identifier. The encoded resource identifier is utilized in place of the detected resource identifier.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting by a hardware processor that a web browser has a corresponding content modification component;

responsive to detecting that the web browser has the content modification component, detecting a resource identifier to be encoded, wherein the resource identifier comprises an identifier that enables the web browser to retrieve and locate a resource;

circumventing by the hardware processor the content modification component with the web browser by;

identifying one or more special characters in the detected resource identifier, wherein the one or more special characters are other than alphanumeric characters and whose position within the detected resource identifier separate logical components and define relationships of the logical components within the detected resource identifier;

encoding the detected resource identifier at least in part by preserving the identified one or more special characters in a resulting encoded resource identifier corresponding to the detected resource identifier, wherein preserving includes incorporating at least some of the identified one or more special characters in the resulting encoded resource identifier and in a same order that the at least some of the identified one or more special characters occur in the detected resource identifier; and

wherein the detected resource identifier is different from the resulting encoded resource identifier; and

utilizing the encoded resource identifier in place of the detected resource identifier to prevent the content modification component from compromising integrity of the resource identified by the detected resource identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource identifier includes at least a portion of a URI.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the special characters identify separations between logical components of the resource identifier and the special characters include one or more of the following:

“

;

”

, “

.”

, “

/”

, “

?”

, “

&

”

, “

#” and

“

=”

.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the resource identifier includes identifying the detected resource identifier in a webpage file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the detected resource identifier is detected using a virtualization client included in an alternative version of a webpage provided to a web browser in response to a request for the webpage.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the resource identifier includes intercepting a Document Object Model API method call that utilizes the detected resource identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the resource identifier includes identifying the resource identifier as a static resource identifier that is specified in a non-script portion of an HTML file.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more special characters includes identifying types and relative locations between the one or more special characters identified in the detected resource identifier.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more special characters includes identifying only a portion of all special characters included in the detected resource identifier and the portion corresponds to special characters to be preserved.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding the detected resource identifier includes encrypting at least a portion of the detected resource identifier.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding the detected resource identifier includes hashing at least a portion of the detected resource identifier.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding the detected resource identifier includes encoding characters between two identified special characters in the detected resource identifier while not encoding the two identified special characters.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding the detected resource identifier includes identifying a domain name to be included in the encoded resource identifier and the domain name corresponds to an intermediary server that will decode the encoded resource identifier.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding the detected resource identifier includes encoding the entire detected resource identifier to generate an encoded value that is included in the encoded resource identifier and appending to the encoded resource identifier an added placeholder special character content that includes the identified one or more special characters.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein utilizing the encoded resource identifier in place of the detected resource identifier includes replacing the detected resource identifier with the encoded resource identifier in a web content.

16. A system, comprising:

a processor configured to;

detect that a web browser has a corresponding content modification component;

in response to a detection that the web browser has the content modification component, detect a resource identifier to be encoded, wherein the resource identifier comprises an identifier that enables the web browser to retrieve and locate a resource;

circumvent the content modification component with the web browser by;

identifying one or more special text characters in the detected resource identifier, wherein the one or more special text characters are other than alphanumeric characters and whose position within the detected resource identifier separate logical components and define relationships of the logical components within the detected resource identifier;

encoding the detected resource identifier at least in part by preserving the identified one or more special text characters in a resulting encoded resource identifier corresponding to the detected resource identifier, wherein preserving includes incorporating at least some of the identified one or more special characters in the resulting encoded resource identifier and in a same order that the at least some of the identified one or more special characters occur in the detected resource identifier, and wherein the detected resource identifier is different from the resulting encoded resource identifier; and

utilizing the encoded resource identifier in place of the detected resource identifier to prevent the content modification component from compromising integrity of the resource identified by the detected resource identifier; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.