Smart lockout
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsAlexandre Kerametlian, Amit Dhariwal, Dana Kaufman, Winfred Wong
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments are directed to having multiple lockout counters that apply to login requests from different origins. More specifically, one counter is associated with a user's familiar locations, another counter is associated with unfamiliar locations. In another embodiment, hashes of incorrect passwords are recorded so that lockout counters are not incremented multiple times when the same incorrect password is entered repeatedly.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for controlling access to a computing account by preventing potentially malicious authentication requests originating from unrecognized sources from interfering with a determined normal usage of the computing account, the access being controlled through use of multiple distinct counters that are used to monitor different types of access attempts, the method being performed by one or more processors of a computer system and comprising:
- at the computer system, receiving an authentication request requesting access to the computing account, the authentication request being received from a user device that is requesting the access to the computing account;
- at the computer system, determining that the authentication request includes an incorrect credential, the incorrect credential being a credential that is presently unusable to gain access to the computing account;
- at the computer system, identifying a device trait associated with the user device that transmitted the authentication request, the device trait being used by the computer system to determine whether the user device is familiar or unfamiliar, wherein the computer system determines that the user device is familiar when the computer system identifies a particular relationship existing between the user device's device trait and the computing account, and wherein the computer system determines that the user device is unfamiliar when the computer system is unable to identify the particular relationship;
- at the computer system, incrementing a first counter when the computer system determines that the user device is familiar and when the incorrect credential is received, the first counter being associated with the determined normal usage of the computing account and being used to identify when familiar user devices are submitting incorrect credentials;
- at the computer system, incrementing a second counter when the computer system determines that the user device is unfamiliar and when the incorrect credential is received, wherein the second counter is not associated with the determined normal usage of the computing account and instead is used to identify when potentially malicious authentication requests are being submitted;
- and
- at the computer system, selectively modifying access to the computing account based on the second counter.
A system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more computer-readable hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the system to control access to a computing account by preventing potentially malicious authentication requests originating from unrecognized sources from interfering with a determined normal usage of the computing account, the computing account being controlled through use of multiple distinct counters that are used to monitor different types of access attempts, the computer-executable instructions thereby causing the computer system to:
- at the computer system, receive an authentication request requesting access to the computing account, the authentication request being received from a user device that is requesting the access to the computing account;
- at the computer system, determine that the authentication request includes an incorrect credential, the incorrect credential being a credential that is presently unusable to gain access to the computing account;
- at the computer system, identify a device trait associated with the user device that transmitted the authentication request, the device trait being used by the computer system to determine whether the user device is familiar or unfamiliar, wherein the computer system determines that the user device is familiar when the computer system identifies a particular relationship existing between the user device's device trait and the computing account, and wherein the computer system determines that the user device is unfamiliar when the computer system is unable to identify the particular relationship;
- at the computer system, increment a first counter when the computer system determines that the user device is familiar and when the incorrect credential is received, the first counter being associated with the determined normal usage of the computing account and being used to identify when familiar user devices are submitting incorrect credentials;
- at the computer system, increment a second counter when the computer system determines that the user device is unfamiliar and when the incorrect credential is received, wherein the second counter is not associated with the determined normal usage of the computing account and instead is used to identify when potentially malicious authentication requests are being submitted;
- and
- at the computer system, selectively modify access to the computing account based on the second counter.
One or more hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a computer system to cause the computer system to control access to a computing account by preventing potentially malicious authentication requests originating from unrecognized sources from interfering with a determined normal usage of the computing account, the computing account being controlled through use of multiple distinct counters that are used to monitor different types of access attempts, the computer-executable instructions thereby causing the computer system to:
- at the computer system, receive an authentication request requesting access to the computing account, the authentication request being received from a user device that is requesting the access to the computing account;
- at the computer system, determine that the authentication request includes an incorrect credential, the incorrect credential being a credential that is presently unusable to gain access to the computing account;
- at the computer system, identify a device trait associated with the user device that transmitted the authentication request, the device trait being used by the computer system to determine whether the user device is familiar or unfamiliar, wherein the computer system determines that the user device is familiar when the computer system identifies a particular relationship existing between the user device's device trait and the computing account, and wherein the computer system determines that the user device is unfamiliar when the computer system is unable to identify the particular relationship;
- at the computer system, increment a first counter when the computer system determines that the user device is familiar and when the incorrect credential is received, the first counter being associated with the determined normal usage of the computing account and being used to identify when familiar user devices are submitting incorrect credentials;
- at the computer system, increment a second counter when the computer system determines that the user device is unfamiliar and when the incorrect credential is received, wherein the second counter is not associated with the determined normal usage of the computing account and instead is used to identify when potentially malicious authentication requests are being submitted;
- and
- at the computer system, selectively modify access to the computing account based on the second counter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.