Efficient patching

• US 20050256664A1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Golan, Gilad, Blumfield, Anthony, Alshibani, Saud, Garms, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 7,559,058 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A facility for automatically processing software patches is described. The facility receives in a computing system a distinguished patch package for modifying the behavior of a programmatic entity. The facility automatically extracts from the distinguished patch package (1) patch application information that identifies a distinguished programmatic entity against which the patches to be applied, and (2) patch behavior information that specifies a manner in which to modify the behavior of the distinguished programmatic entity. The facility automatically adds to a patch table a distinguished entry containing the extracted patch application information and patch behavior information.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system, comprising:

receiving in the computing system a distinguished patch package for modifying the behavior of an installed program;

automatically extracting from the distinguished patch package (1) patch application information, identifying a distinguished portion of a distinguished program against which the patch is to be applied, and (2) patch behavior information, specifying a manner in which to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program; and

automatically adding a distinguished entry to a patch table, the distinguished entry containing the extracting patch application information and patch behavior information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the contents of the distinguished entry to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the contents of the distinguished entry are used to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinct program at a time when no administrative user is logged in to the computing system.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the contents of the distinguished entry are used to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinct program without relying upon any user permissions.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the contents of the distinct entry are used to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program without determining the location in which the distinguished program is persistently stored.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the contents of the distinguished entry are used to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program in response to the loading of the distinguished program.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the contents of the distinguished entry are used to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program in response to the execution of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein two instances of the distinguished program are loaded, and the contents of the distinguished entry are used to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of both instances of the distinguished program.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the time the patch application information is extracted, determining whether the distinguished program is loaded in the computing system; and

if the distinguished program is loaded in the computing system, using the extracted patch application information to modify the behavior of the loaded distinguished program in accordance with the patch behavior information.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising deleting the distinguished entry from the patch table to prevent the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinguished program from being modified in accordance with the patch behavior information contained by the distinguished entry.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted patch behavior information specifies modifying the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program to perform value validation.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted patch behavior information specifies modifying the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program to perform parameter validation.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted patch behavior information specifies modifying the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinct program to perform validation of a value read from a file.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted patch behavior information specifies modifying the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinct program to perform validation of a value inputted by user.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted patch behavior information specifies modifying the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinct program to perform validation of a value received in one or more network packets.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted patch behavior information specifies modifying the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished program to perform parameter validation by calling a distinguished validation function.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein an entry in the patch table other than the distinct entry also contains patch behavior information that specifies modifying the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinguished program to perform parameter validation by calling the distinguished validation function.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising executing code for the distinguished validation function to modify the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinct program, the distinguished code not being included in the distinguished patch package.

19. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving in the computing system a distinguished patch package for modifying the behavior of a programmatic entity;

automatically extracting from the distinguished patch package (1) patch application information, identifying a distinguished programmatic entity against which the patch is to be applied, and (2) patch behavior information, specifying a manner in which to modify the behavior of the distinguished programmatic entity; and

automatically adding a distinguished entry to a patch table, the distinguished entry containing the extracting patch application information and patch behavior information.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the distinguished programmatic entity has a plurality of behaviors, only a proper subset of which the patch behavior information specifies modifying, and wherein the received distinguished patch package contains no information about behaviors of the distinguished programmatic entity that the patch behavior information does not specify modifying.

21. One or more computer memories collectively storing a patch table data structure, comprising a plurality of patch entries, each patch entry containing:

patch application information, identifying a distinguished portion of a distinguished programmatic entity which the patch is to be applied; and

patch behavior information, specifying a manner in which to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion the distinguished programmatic entity, such that, for a particular patch entry, the contents of the patch entry can be used to modify the behavior of the distinguished portion of the distinguished programmatic entity in the specified manner.

22. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein the patch application information identifies an executable module associated with the programmatic entity.

23. The computer memories of claim 22 wherein the patch application information identifies a position in the identified executable module.

24. The computer memories of claim 23 wherein the patch application information further identifies contents to expect at the identified position in the identified executable module.

25. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein a selected patch entry contains a plurality of patch application information instances, each instance identifying a distinguished portion of a different version of the distinguished programmatic entity.

26. The computer memories of claim 25 wherein a first one of the patch application information instances identifies a version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which a selected hot fix has been applied, and wherein a second one of the patch application information instances identifies a version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which the selected hot fix has not been applied.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the selected patch entry can be applied to (1) the version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which the selected hot fix has been applied, (2) the version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which the selected hot fix has not been applied, or (3) both, without replacing the version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which the selected hot fix has been applied with the version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which the selected hot fix has not been applied, and without replacing the version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which the selected hot fix has not been applied with the version of the distinguished programmatic entity to which the selected hot fix has been applied.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein the selected patch entry may be deployed to a target computer system by an administrator without regard for which version of the distinguished programmatic entity is executed on the target computer system.

29. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein the patch behavior information of a selected patch entry contains code usable to modify the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinguished programmatic entity.

30. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein the patch behavior information of a selected patch entry contains data usable to modify the behavior of the distinct portion of the distinguished programmatic entity.

31. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein the patch behavior information of a selected patch entry specifies a parameter validation test to be applied to a specified parameter associated with the distinguished programmatic entity.

32. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein the identity of the computer memories storing the patch table data structure is configurable.

33. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein the computer memories are directly connected to a computer system on which one or more of the patch entries are to be applied.

34. The computer memories of claim 21 wherein the computer memories are directly connected to a computer system on which no patch entries are to be applied.

35. A computing system that automatically implements received code patches, comprising:

a pre-installed library of helper functions; and

a patching agent that receives code patches, each code patch targeting a group of executable modules and identifying a helper function in the library, and that, when an executable module in a group targeted by a received code patch is executed, invokes the helper function identified by the code patch targeting the group of executable modules including that executable module to perform value validation.

36. The computing system of claim 35 wherein the patching agent includes a library maintenance subsystem that receives new parameter validation functions and automatically adds the received new parameter validation functions to the library, so that these new primary validation functions can be invoked in accordance with code patches that identify them.

37. A method in a computing system for automatically applying a software patch, comprising:

receiving in the computing system a patch for modifying the behavior of a programmatic entity, the patch (1) specifying a manner in which to modify the behavior of the programmatic entity, and (2) for each of a plurality of versions of the programmatic entity, (a) identifying the version of the programmatic entity, (b) specifying a position in the version of the programmatic entity to modify the behavior of the programmatic entity in the specified manner, and (c) identifying code expected to reside at the specified position in the version of the programmatic entity before the behavior of the programmatic entity is modified;

automatically determining that a distinguished version of the programmatic entity among the versions of the programmatic entity identified by the patch is installed on the computing system; and

only if the position specified for the distinguished version of the programmatic entity contains the identified code expected to reside at the specified position, modifying the behavior of the programmatic entity at the position specified for the distinguished version of the programmatic entity in accordance with the patch.

38. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to perform a method for automatically applying a software patch, comprising:

storing in the computing system a patch for modifying the behavior of a programmatic entity, the patch (1) specifying a manner in which to modify the behavior of the programmatic entity, and (2) for each of a plurality of versions of the programmatic entity, (a) identifying the version of the programmatic entity, (b) specifying a position in the version of the programmatic entity to modify the behavior of the programmatic entity in the specified manner, and (c) identifying code expected to reside at the specified position in the version of the programmatic entity before the behavior of the programmatic entity is modified;

automatically determining that a distinguished version of the programmatic entity among the versions of the programmatic entity identified by the patch is installed on the computing system; and

only if the position specified for the distinguished version of the programmatic entity contains the identified code expected to reside at the specified position, modifying the behavior of the programmatic entity at the position specified for the distinguished version of the programmatic entity in accordance with the patch.