Minimum lifespan credentials for crawling data repositories

• US 8,875,249 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2007
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Ture, Mark, Krishnamurthy, Sriram, Krishnaprasad, Muralidhar, Krishnamurthy, Vishu
• Primary Examiner(s): HOLDER, BRADLEY W
• Application Number:
  US11/680,544
• Publication Number:
  US 20070283425A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,799 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/2, 726/3, 726/4, 726/5, 726/28
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0846 using time-dependent-passwords, e.g. periodically changing passwords

Abstract

A flexible and extensible architecture allows for secure searching across an enterprise. Such an architecture can provide a simple Internet-like search experience to users searching secure content inside (and outside) the enterprise. The architecture allows for the crawling and searching of a variety of sources across an enterprise, regardless of whether any of these sources conform to a conventional user role model. The architecture further allows for security attributes to be submitted at query time, for example, in order to provide real-time secure access to enterprise resources. The user query also can be transformed to provide for dynamic querying that provides for a more current result list than can be obtained for static queries.

Claims

1. A method of minimizing storage time for security credentials for a secure crawl, comprising:

initiating, at a computer system, a crawl of a secure source;

indexing, at the computer system, a plurality of documents in an index which results from the crawling;

in response to initiating the crawl of the secure source, examining, at the computer system, a setting for the secure source, the setting selected by an administrator or user to determine and specify whether the administrator or user has specified that the secure source requires security credentials including a temporary password for the secure source to be stored temporarily;

in response to examining the setting, determining that security credentials including the temporary password for the secure source are required to be stored temporarily, and prompting, at the computer system, for security credentials including the temporary password at a time of the crawl based on determining that the administrator or user has specified that the secure source requires security credentials including the temporary password to be temporary;

wherein the security credentials including the temporary password are associated with said administrator or user;

writing, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password to temporary storage;

crawling a plurality of documents obtained from the secure source using the security credentials including the temporary password, and indexing at the computer system the plurality of documents;

stamping, at the computer system, the plurality of documents with security credentials consistent with the identity of the administrator or user such that stamped documents are only available for search in the index by the administrator or user;

retaining the security credentials including the temporary password until a final crawl when multiple crawls are initiated that utilize the security credentials including the temporary password; and

deleting, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password from temporary storage when no longer needed for the crawling.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes performing a callback at the end of the crawling.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes deleting the security credentials including the temporary password from resident memory at the end of the crawling.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes deleting the security credentials including the temporary password for any interruption of the crawling.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes deleting the security credentials including the temporary password at system restart.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions which when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to minimize storage time for security credentials for a secure crawl, the instructions comprising:

instructions for initiating a crawl of a secure source;

instructions for indexing a plurality of documents in an index which results from the crawling;

instructions for examining, in response to initiating the crawl of the secure source, a setting for the secure source, the setting selected by an administrator or user to determine and specify whether the administrator or user has specified that the secure source requires security credentials including a temporary password for the secure source to be stored temporarily;

instructions for determining, in response to examining the setting, that security credentials including the temporary password for the secure source are required to be stored temporarily, and instructions for prompting for security credentials including the temporary password at a time of the crawl based on determining that the administrator or user has specified that the secure source requires security credentials including the temporary password to be temporary;

wherein the security credentials including the temporary password are associated with said administrator or user;

instructions for writing the security credentials including the temporary password to temporary storage;

instructions for crawling a plurality of documents obtained from the secure source using the security credentials including the temporary password, and indexing the plurality of documents;

instructions for stamping, at the computer system, the plurality of documents with security credentials consistent with the identity of the administrator or user such that stamped documents are only available for search in the index by the administrator or user;

instructions for retaining the security credentials including the temporary password until a final crawl when multiple crawls are initiated that utilize the security credentials including the temporary password; and

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password from temporary storage when no longer needed for the crawling.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes instructions for performing a callback at the end of the crawling.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password from resident memory at the end of the crawling.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password for any interruption of the crawling.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password at system restart.

11. A method of minimizing storage time for security credentials for a secure crawl, comprising:

initiating, at a computer system, a crawl of a secure source;

in response to initiating the crawl of the secure source, examining, at the computer system, a setting for the secure source, the setting selected by an administrator or user specifying whether security credentials including a temporary password for the secure source are to be stored temporarily;

in response to examining the setting, determining that security credentials for the secure source are required to be stored temporarily, and prompting, at the computer system, for security credentials including the temporary password at a time of the crawl, wherein the security credentials including the temporary password are associated with said administrator or user;

writing, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password to temporary storage;

crawling a plurality of documents obtained from the secure source using the security credentials including the temporary password, and indexing at the computer system the plurality of documents;

if the crawl is interrupted before completion, deleting, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password after the interruption; and

if the crawl is completed, deleting, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password from temporary storage when no longer needed for the crawling.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein:

deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes performing a callback at the end of the crawl.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein:

deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes deleting the security credentials including the temporary password from resident memory at the end of the crawling.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein:

deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes deleting the security credentials including the temporary password at system restart.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions which when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to minimize storage time for security credentials for a secure crawl, the instructions comprising:

instructions for initiating, at a computer system, a crawl of a secure source;

instructions for examining, in response to initiating the crawl of the secure source, a setting for the secure source, the setting selected by an administrator or user specifying whether security credentials including a temporary password for the secure source are to be stored temporarily;

instructions for determining, in response to examining the setting, that security credentials for the secure source are required to be stored temporarily, and prompting, at the computer system, for security credentials including the temporary password at a time of the crawl, wherein the security credentials including the temporary password are associated with said administrator or user;

instructions for writing, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password to temporary storage;

instructions for crawling a plurality of documents obtained from the secure source using the security credentials including the temporary password, and indexing at the computer system the plurality of documents;

if the crawl is interrupted before completion, instructions for deleting, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password after the interruption; and

if the crawl is completed, instructions for deleting, at the computer system, the security credentials including the temporary password from temporary storage when no longer needed for the crawling.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein:

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes instructions for performing a callback at the end of the crawling.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein:

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password from resident memory at the end of the crawling.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15, wherein:

instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password includes instructions for deleting the security credentials including the temporary password at system restart.

19. A system for minimizing storage time for security credentials for a secure crawl comprising:

one or more hardware processors;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of instructions, which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to;

initiate, at a computer system, a crawl of a secure source;

in response to initiating the crawl of the secure source, examine a setting for the secure source, the setting selected by an administrator or user specifying whether security credentials including a temporary password for the secure source are to be stored temporarily;

in response to examining the setting, determine that security credentials for the secure source are required to be stored temporarily, and prompt for security credentials including the temporary password at a time of the crawl, wherein the security credentials including the temporary password are associated with said administrator or user;

write the security credentials including the temporary password to temporary storage;

crawl a plurality of documents obtained from the secure source using the security credentials including the temporary password, and indexing at the computer system the plurality of documents;

if the crawl is interrupted before completion, delete the security credentials including the temporary password after the interruption; and

if the crawl is completed, delete the security credentials including the temporary password from temporary storage when no longer needed for the crawling.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein:

instructions, which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to delete the security credentials including the temporary password, and include instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform a callback at the end of the crawl.

21. The system according to claim 19, wherein:

instructions, which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to delete the security credentials including the temporary password, and include instructions that cause the one or more processors to delete the security credentials including the temporary password from resident memory at the end of the crawling.

22. The system according to claim 19, wherein:

instructions, which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to delete the security credentials including the temporary password, and include instructions that cause the one or more processors to delete the security credentials including the temporary password at system restart.