System and method for innovative management of transport layer security session tickets in a network environment

• US 9,680,869 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2015
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, Inc. (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Buruganahalli, Shivakumar, Vissamsetty, Venu
• Primary Examiner(s): Shiferaw, Eleni
• Assistant Examiner(s): GIDDINS, NELSON S
• Application Number:
  US14/689,479
• Publication Number:
  US 20160014152A1
• Time in Patent Office: 788 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• 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 63/166 at the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• 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 9/3242 involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

An example method includes identifying a transport layer security (TLS) session between a client and a server, parsing one or more TLS messages to identify a session ticket associated with the session, transforming the session ticket into a fixed size session token, and managing the session using the session token to identify the session. The transforming may include computing a hash value of the session ticket using a hashing algorithm. If any of the TLS messages is spread across more than one TLS protocol record, the method can include computing a hash value of a portion of the session ticket encountered in a TLS protocol record using a hashing algorithm, incrementally computing another hash value of another portion of the session ticket encountered in a subsequent TLS protocol record from the previously computed hash value, and repeating the incremental computing until portions of the session ticket have been processed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

parsing a transport layer security (TLS) message to identify a session ticket that identifies a TLS session;

computing a hash value of a portion of the session ticket using a hashing algorithm;

incrementally computing a hash value of another portion of the session ticket when the TLS message is spread across more than one TLS protocol record;

repeating the incrementally computing and processing all portions of the session ticket;

assigning the incrementally computed hash value to a session token;

managing the TLS session using the session token by decrypting TLS traffic using the session token; and

detecting network attacks on the TLS session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the session ticket accords with the Request for Comments 5077 standard.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the parsing includes identifying the session ticket from a ClientHello message, a ServerHello message, or a NewSessionTicket message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

appending a single bit to an end of the session ticket, followed by at least one opposite bit, to bring a length of the session ticket up to 64 bits fewer than a multiple of 512 bits; and

appending to the end of the session ticket a 64-bit little endian integer representing the length of the session ticket in bits.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a size of the session token ranges from 32 bytes to 64 bytes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the more than one TLS protocol record contains information to manage an application of a message authentication code (MAC) to outgoing messages and to verify incoming messages using the MAC.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory element that stores instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to parse a transport layer security (TLS) message to identify a session ticket that identifies a TLS session, to compute a hash value of a portion of the session ticket using a hashing algorithm, to perform an incremental computation of a hash value of another portion of the session ticket when the TLS message is spread across more than one TLS protocol record, to repeat the incremental computation and to process all portions of the session ticket, to assign the incrementally computed hash value to a session token, to manage the TLS session using the session token by decrypting TLS traffic using the session token, and to detect network attacks on the TLS session.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the session ticket accords with the Request for Comments 5077 standard.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to parse the TLS message by identifying the session ticket from a ClientHello message, a ServerHello message, or a NewSessionTicket message.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to append a single bit to an end of the session ticket, followed by at least one opposite bit, to bring a length of the session ticket up to 64 bits fewer than a multiple of 512 bits, and to append to the end of the session ticket a 64-bit little endian integer representing the length of the session ticket in bits.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein a size of the session token ranges from 32 bytes to 64 bytes.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to manage the TLS session by performing at least one activity selected from a group consisting of:

distributing the session token to one or more processing cores in a multi-core system;

matching information in the session token with information contained in a session ticket table comprising information related to a state of a network flow; and

inspecting the TLS traffic for a string that matches an attack signature.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the more than one TLS protocol record contains information to manage an application of a message authentication code (MAC) to outgoing messages and to verify incoming messages using the MAC.

14. Logic, encoded in non-transitory media, that includes code for execution and, when executed by a processor, is operable to perform operations comprising:

parsing a transport layer security (TLS) message to identify a session ticket that identifies a TLS session;

computing a hash value of a portion of the session ticket using a hashing algorithm;

incrementally computing a hash value of another portion of the session ticket when the TLS message is spread across more than one TLS protocol record;

repeating the incrementally computing and processing all portions of the session ticket;

assigning the incrementally computed hash value to a session token; and

managing the TLS session using the session token by decrypting TLS traffic using the session token; and

detecting network attacks on the TLS session.

15. The logic of claim 14, wherein the session ticket accords with the Request for Comments 5077 standard.

16. The logic of claim 14, wherein the parsing includes identifying the session ticket from a ClientHello message, a ServerHello message, or a NewSessionTicket message.

17. The logic of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

appending a single bit to an end of the session ticket, followed by at least one opposite bit, to bring a length of the session ticket up to 64 bits fewer than a multiple of 512 bits; and

appending to the end of the session ticket a 64-bit little endian integer representing the length of the session ticket in bits.

18. The logic of claim 14, wherein a size of the session token ranges from 32 bytes to 64 bytes.

19. The logic of claim 14, wherein the managing comprises at least one activity selected from a group consisting of:

distributing the session token to one or more processing cores in a multi-core system;

matching information in the session token with information contained in a session ticket table comprising information related to a state of a network flow; and

inspecting the TLS traffic for a string that matches an attack signature.

20. The logic of claim 14, wherein the more than one TLS protocol record contains information to manage an application of a message authentication code (MAC) to outgoing messages and to verify incoming messages using the MAC.