Terminal control apparatus and terminal control method

• US 7,845,010 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujimoto, Hiroshi, Nakagawa, Tomohiro, Kinno, Akira, Yoshikawa, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad, Edan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jackson, Jenise E
• Application Number:
  US11/260,407
• Publication Number:
  US 20060099847A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,859 Days
• Field of Search: 726/22, 726 25- 26
• US Class Current: 726/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display

Abstract

A terminal control apparatus includes a fragility detection unit, a control content decision unit, a terminal information registration unit, a terminal specifying unit and a control content notification unit. The terminal specifying unit specifies, based on the fragility information and the terminal information acquired by the terminal information registration unit, a terminal device to be affected by the fragility of the program. The control content notification unit notifies the control contents to the terminal device specified by the terminal specifying unit.

Claims

1. A terminal control apparatus, comprising:

a fragility detection unit which detects fragility information including program identification information which identifies a program and including information concerning fragility of a program, from a terminal device or a server via a network;

a control content decision unit which decides control contents which is information to be used to control operation of the terminal device which has the program having the fragility, based on the fragility information;

a terminal information registration unit which acquires terminal information concerning the terminal device from the terminal device including the terminal identification information identifying the terminal device and program identification information identifying one or more programs included on the terminal device;

a terminal specifying unit which specifies, based on the program identification information included in the fragility information and the program identification information included in the terminal information, a terminal device to be affected by the fragility of the program;

a control content notification unit which notifies the control contents to the terminal device specified by the terminal specifying unit and does not notify the control contents to any terminal devices which are not specified the by the terminal specifying unit,

wherein the control content decision unit decides the control contents based on policy decision information in which degrees of severity of the fragility are associated with control content, and

the fragility information includes an entry which associates a contents of the fragility which indicates an unintended action that occurs, a situation where the fragility occurs, an operating system to be affected by the fragility, hardware to be affected by the fragility, middleware to be affected by the fragility, and a degree of severity of the fragility, the degree of severity being one of a plurality of predetermined degrees of severity which includes a highest degree of severity and a lowest degree of severity and the degree of severity being based on an effect the fragility has on security or continuation of an operation.

2. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the fragility detection unit verifies correctness of the detected fragility information, and

the control content decision unit decides the control contents based on the fragility information determined to have the correctness by the verification.

3. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the terminal specifying unit specifies a terminal in which the program has been updated, and

the control content decision unit decides the control contents in response to the update of the program.

4. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control content decision unit decides at least one of the control contents regarding a system call, the control contents regarding hardware, and the control contents regarding middleware.

5. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the terminal information is at least one of an operating system provided in the terminal device, hardware provided in the terminal device, middleware provided in the terminal device, a program owned by the terminal device, update timing of the program in the terminal device, notification timing of the control contents to the terminal device, and the notified control contents.

7. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the fragility detection unit receives operation status information including the program identification information and information on an operation status of the program, from the terminal device in which the program is introduced, and detects the fragility information form the operation status information.

8. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the terminal information registration unit acquires the terminal information when the program is newly introduced to the terminal device, or when the program is updated to the terminal device, or periodically, from the terminal device in which the program is introduced.

9. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the fragility detection unit detects the degree of severity of the fragility, based on contents of the fragility and an occurrence possibility of an attack to the fragility.

10. The terminal control apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the policy decision information includes a control target which is associated with a fragility occurrence situation included in the fragility information, and

the control content decision unit decides the control target to apply the control contents added, based on the policy decision information.

6. A terminal control method, implemented on a terminal control apparatus, comprising:

detecting fragility information including program identification information which identifies a program and including information concerning fragility of a program, from a terminal device or a server via a network;

deciding control contents which is information to be used to control operation of the terminal device which has the program having the fragility, based on the fragility information;

acquiring terminal information concerning the terminal device from the terminal device including the terminal identification information identifying the terminal device and program identification information identifying one or more programs included on the terminal device;

specifying, based on the program identification information included in the fragility information and the program identification information included in the terminal information, a terminal device to be affected by the fragility of the program; and

notifying the control contents to the specified terminal device, and not notifying the control contents to any terminal devices which are not specified in the specifying step,

wherein the deciding the control contents includes deciding the control contents based on policy decision information in which degrees of severity of the fragility are associated with control content, and

the fragility information includes an entry which associates a contents of the fragility which indicates an unintended action that occurs, a situation where the fragility occurs, an operating system to be affected by the fragility, hardware to be affected by the fragility, middleware to be affected by the fragility, and a degree of severity of the fragility, the degree of severity being one of a plurality of predetermined degrees of severity which includes a highest degree of severity and a lowest degree of severity and the degree of severity being based on an effect the fragility has on security or continuation of an operation.