Validating visitor internet-based security threats

• US 8,850,580 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2011
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CloudFlare Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CloudFlare Incorporated
• Inventors: Prince, Matthew Browning, Holloway, Lee Hahn, Pye, Ian Gerald
• Primary Examiner(s): Schwartz, Darren B
• Application Number:
  US13/078,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20110283359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,278 Days
• Field of Search: 726 11- 15, 726 22- 25, 713/150, 713153-154, 713164-168, 713/170, 713182-183, 709223-229
• US Class Current: 726/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/59 using proxies for addressing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0245 Filtering by information in the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0254 Stateful filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 : using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 : using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 : Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 : the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 : Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1433 : Vulnerability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 : Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 : Denial of Service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1466 : Active attacks involving interception, injection, modification, spoofing of data unit addresses, e.g. hijacking, packet injection or TCP sequence number attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 : Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 : Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 : Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 : Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 : for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A validating server receives from a client device a first request that does not include a cookie for a validating domain that resolves to the validating sever. The first request is received at the validating server as a result of a proxy server redirecting the client device to the validating domain upon a determination that a visitor belonging to the client device is a potential threat based on an IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned to the client device used for a second request to perform an action on an identified resource hosted on an origin server for an origin domain. The validating server sets a cookie for the client device, determines a set of characteristics associated with the first client device, and transmits the cookie and a block page to the client device that has been customized based on the set of characteristics, the block page indicating that the second request has been blocked.

Claims

1. A method in a validating server for validating visitor Internet-based security threats, comprising:

receiving from a first client device a first request that does not include a cookie for a validating domain that resolves to the validating server, wherein the first request is received as a result of a proxy server redirecting a second request from the first client device to the validating domain upon a determination that a visitor belonging to the first client device is a potential threat based on an IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned to the first client device used in the second request to perform an action on a first identified resource hosted on an origin server for an origin domain;

setting a first cookie for the first client device;

determining a set of one or more characteristics associated with the first client device; and

transmitting a block page to the first client device that has been customized based on one or more of the set of characteristics including explanatory text that explains that the second request has been blocked and a reason why the second request has been blocked, wherein the block page includes a mechanism to dismiss the block page, and wherein the block page is not the first identified resource; and

upon a successful dismissal of the block page, indicating in the first cookie a successful dismissal of the block page and transmitting the first cookie to the first client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mechanism to dismiss the block page is selected from the group consisting of:

a link to close the block page, a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), and a dismiss code field.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving from the first client device a third request that includes the first cookie set for the first client device, wherein the third request is received as a result of the proxy server redirecting the first client device to the validating domain upon a determination that the visitor belonging to the first client device is potentially a threat based on the IP address assigned to the first client device used for a fourth request to perform an action on the first identified resource hosted on the origin server for the origin domain;

determining that the visitor is not a threat, wherein the determination is based at least on the first cookie included in the third request; and

responsive to determining that the visitor is not a threat, causing the first client device to issue a fifth request that corresponds with the fourth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the first client device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein causing the first client device to issue the fifth request includes redirecting the first client device to issue the fifth request directly to the origin server.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein causing the first client device to issue the fifth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the first client device includes causing the IP address assigned to the first client device to be removed from a restricted list and redirecting the first client device to issue the fifth request to the proxy server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from a second client device a third request that includes a second cookie for the validating domain, wherein the third request is received as a result of the proxy server redirecting the second client device to the validating domain upon a determination that a visitor belonging to the second client device is a potential threat based on an IP address assigned to the second client device used for a fourth request to perform an action on a second identified resource hosted on the origin server for the origin domain;

determining that the visitor belonging to the second client device is not a threat, wherein the determination is based at least on the second cookie included in the third request; and

responsive to determining that the visitor belonging to the second client device is not a threat, causing the second client device to issue a fifth request that corresponds with the fourth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the second client device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein causing the second client device to issue the fifth request includes redirecting the second client device to issue the fifth request directly to the origin server.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein causing the second client device to issue the fifth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the second client device includes causing the IP address assigned to the second client device to be removed from a restricted list and redirecting the second client device to issue the fifth request to the proxy server.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the second cookie included in the third request includes an indication that the visitor belonging to the second client device has not been previously participating in suspicious activities.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the second cookie included in the third request includes an indication that the visitor belonging to the second client device is a human user and not a bot.

11. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor of a validating server, cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving from a first client device a first request that does not include a cookie for a validating domain that resolves to the validating server, wherein the first request is received as a result of a proxy server redirecting a second request from the first client device to the validating domain upon a determination that a visitor belonging to the first client device is a potential threat based on an IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned to the first client device used in the second request to perform an action on a first identified resource hosted on an origin server for an origin domain;

setting a first cookie for the first client device;

determining a set of one or more characteristics associated with the first client device; and

transmitting a block page to the first client device that has been customized based on one or more of the set of characteristics including explanatory text that explains that the second request has been blocked and a reason why the second request has been blocked, wherein the block page includes a mechanism to dismiss the block page, and wherein the block page is not the first identified resource; and

upon a successful dismissal of the block page, indicating in the cookie a successful dismissal of the block page and transmitting the first cookie to the first client device.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the mechanism to dismiss the block page is selected from the group consisting of:

a link to close the block page, a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), and a dismiss code field.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving from the first client device a third request that includes the first cookie set for the first client device, wherein the third request is received as a result of the proxy server redirecting the first client device to the validating domain upon a determination that the visitor belonging to the first client device is potentially a threat based on the IP address assigned to the first client device used for a fourth request to perform an action on the first identified resource hosted on the origin server for the origin domain;

determining that the visitor is not a threat, wherein the determination is based at least on the first cookie included in the third request; and

responsive to determining that the visitor is not a threat, causing the first client device to issue a fifth request that corresponds with the fourth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the first client device.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein causing the first client device to issue the fifth request includes redirecting the first client device to issue the fifth request directly to the origin server.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein causing the first client device to issue the fifth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the first client device includes causing the IP address assigned to the first client device to be removed from a restricted list and redirecting the first client device to issue the fifth request to the proxy server.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving from a second client device a third request that includes a second cookie for the validating domain, wherein the third request is received as a result of the proxy server redirecting the second client device to the validating domain upon a determination that a visitor belonging to the second client device is a potential threat based on an IP address assigned to the second client device used for a fourth request to perform an action on a second identified resource hosted on the origin server for the origin domain;

determining that the visitor belonging to the second client device is not a threat, wherein the determination is based at least on the second cookie included in the third request; and

responsive to determining that the visitor belonging to the second client device is not a threat, causing the second client device to issue a fifth request that corresponds with the fourth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the second client device.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein causing the second client device to issue the fifth request includes redirecting the second client device to issue the fifth request directly to the origin server.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein causing the second client device to issue the fifth request that will not be blocked based on the IP address assigned to the second client device includes causing the IP address assigned to the second client device to be removed from a restricted list and redirecting the second client device to issue the fifth request to the proxy server.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the second cookie included in the third request includes an indication that the visitor belonging to the second client device has not been previously participating in suspicious activities.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the second cookie included in the third request includes an indication that the visitor belonging to the second client device is a human user and not a bot.