Restricting access to network resources through recursive URL classification

• US 8,176,079 B1
• Filed: 09/23/2008
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gen Digital Inc.
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Spertus, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Wilson
• Application Number:
  US12/236,388
• Time in Patent Office: 1,323 Days
• Field of Search: 707781-788, 709217-224, 709/247
• US Class Current: 707/785
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]

Abstract

In one example, a server-based system may provide a recursive classification of the contents of a URL by: 1) receiving a request for a URL-classification list associated with a base URL, 2) constructing the URL-classification list, and 3) providing, in response to the request, the URL-classification list. The resulting URL-classification list may comprise: 1) content categories occurring in the base URL and 2) content categories occurring in any URLs embedded in the base URL. In another example, a client-based system may restrict access to network resources, based on the contents of a base URL, by: 1) identifying a request from a user to access a base URL, 2) requesting a URL-classification list associated with the base URL, 3) receiving the URL-classification list, and 4) determining, based on the URL-classification list, that access to the base URL is authorized. Corresponding computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing a recursive classification of the contents of a URL, at least a portion of the method being performed by a server-side computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

receiving, from an access-restriction module installed on an additional computing device, a request for a URL-classification list for a base URL;

constructing the URL-classification list for the base URL, the URL-classification list comprising;

content categories that identify genres of content that occur in the base URL;

content categories that identify genres of content that occur in any URL embedded in the base URL;

providing, in response to the request, the URL-classification list for the base URL to the access-restriction module installed on the additional computing device to enable the access-restriction module to determine whether to permit a user to access the base URL by;

retrieving a user-categories list for the user that specifies content categories that the user is authorized to access;

determining, by comparing the content categories contained within the URL-classification list with the content categories specified in the user-categories list, that the URL-classification list does not contain any content categories that the user is not authorized to access;

upon determining that the URL-classification list does not contain any content categories that the user is not authorized to access, permitting the user to access the base URL.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the URL-classification list further comprises content categories that occur in any URL embedded multiple levels from the base URL, the number of levels being limited by a maximum-embedding depth.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein constructing the URL-classification list comprises retrieving information to construct the URL-classification list from a URL-classification database.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein retrieving the information to construct the URL-classification list comprises identifying URLs with unstable content.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the URL-classification list further comprises:

a URL list that identifies the base URL and any URLs embedded in the base URL;

content categories that occur in each URL in the URL list.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the URL list further identifies any URL embedded multiple levels from the base URL, the number of levels being limited by a maximum-embedding depth.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the URL-classification list further identifies the maximum-embedding depth.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the URL-classification list further identifies URLs with unstable content that are embedded in the base URL.

9. A computer-implemented method for restricting access to network resources based on the contents of a URL, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

identifying a request from a user to access a base URL;

requesting a URL-classification list for the base URL;

receiving the URL-classification list for the base URL, the URL-classification list comprising;

content categories that identify genres of content that occur in the base URL;

content categories that identify genres of content that occur in any URL embedded in the base URL;

determining whether to permit the user to access the base URL by;

retrieving a user-categories list for the user that specifies content categories that the user is authorized to access;

determining, by comparing the content categories contained within the URL-classification list for the base URL with the content categories specified in the user-categories list, that the URL-classification list does not contain any content categories that the user is not authorized to access;

upon determining that the URL-classification list does not contain any content categories that the user is not authorized to access, permitting the user to access the base URL.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein requesting the URL-classification list further comprises indicating a maximum-embedding depth.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the URL-classification list further comprises content categories that occur in any URL embedded multiple levels from the base URL, the number of levels being limited by a maximum-embedding depth.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the URL-classification list further comprises:

a URL list that identifies the base URL and any URLs embedded in the base URL;

content categories that occur in each URL in the URL list.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein determining whether to permit the user to access the base URL is further comprises:

identifying at least one URL embedded in the base URL;

determining, by comparing content categories identified by the URL-classification list as occurring within the embedded URL with the content categories specified in the user-categories list, that the embedded URL does not contain any content categories that the user is not authorized to access;

permitting the user to access the embedded URL.

14. A system for restricting access to network resources through recursive URL classification, the system comprising:

an access-control module programmed to;

identify a request from a user to access a base URL;

request a URL-classification list for the base URL;

receive the URL-classification list for the base URL, the URL-classification list comprising;

content categories that identify genres of content that occur in the base URL;

content categories that identify genres of content that occur in any URL embedded in the base URL;

determine whether to permit the user to access the base URL by;

retrieving a user-categories list for the user that specifies content categories that the user is authorized to access;

determining, by comparing the content categories contained within the URL-classification list for the base URL with the content categories specified in the user-categories list, that the URL-classification list does not contain any content categories that the user is not authorized to access;

upon determining that the URL-classification list does not contain any content categories that the user is not authorized to access, permit the user to access the base URL;

at least one processor configured to execute the access-control module.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the URL-classification list further comprises content categories that occur in any URL embedded multiple levels from the base URL, the number of levels being limited by a maximum-embedding depth.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the URL-classification list further identifies URLs with unstable content.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the URL-classification list further comprises:

a URL list that identifies the base URL and any URLs embedded in the base URL;

content categories that identify content that occurs in each URL in the URL list.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the URL list further identifies any URL embedded multiple levels from the base URL, the number of levels being limited by a maximum-embedding depth.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the URL-classification list further identifies URLs with unstable content that are embedded in the base URL.