US 11,444,963 B1 · Efficient threat context-aware packet filtering for network protection

Abstract

A threat intelligence gateway (TIG) may protect TCP/IP networks from network (e.g., Internet) threats by enforcing certain policies on in-transit packets that are crossing network boundaries. The policies may be composed of packet filtering rules with packet-matching criteria derived from cyber threat intelligence (CTI) associated with Internet threats. These CTI-derived packet-filtering rules may be created offline by policy creation and management servers, which may distribute the policies to subscribing TIGs that subsequently enforce the policies on in-transit packets. Each packet filtering rule may specify a disposition that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as deny/block/drop the in-transit packet or pass/allow/forward the in-transit packet, and also may specify directives that may be applied to a matching in-transit packet, such as log, capture, spoof-tcp-rst, etc. Often, however, the selection of a rule's disposition and directives that best protect the associated network may not be optimally determined before a matching in-transit packet is observed by the associated TIG. In such cases, threat context information that may only be available (e.g., computable) at in-transit packet observation and/or filtering time, such as current time-of-day, current TIG/network location, current TIG/network administrator, the in-transit packet being determined to be part of an active attack on the network, etc., may be helpful to determine the disposition and directives that may best protect the network from the threat associated with the in-transit packet. The present disclosure describes examples of methods, systems, and apparatuses that may be used for efficiently determining (e.g., accessing and/or computing), in response to the in-transit packet, threat context information associated with an in-transit packet. The threat context information may be used to efficiently determine the disposition and/or one or more directives to apply to the in-transit packet. This may result in dispositions and/or directives being applied to in-transit packets that better protect the network as compared with solely using dispositions and directives that were predetermined prior to receiving the in-transit packet.

Claims30

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

receiving, by a packet-filtering appliance configured to process packets in-transit traversing a boundary between a first network and a second network, a plurality of packet-filtering rules each indicating one or more criteria and one or more actions to be performed, wherein:
the packet-filtering rules were automatically generated based on a plurality of threat indicators that were determined based on a plurality of cyber threat intelligence reports from one or more cyber threat intelligence providers, wherein the plurality of threat indicators comprises a plurality of network addresses associated with one or more network threats identified by the one or more cyber threat intelligence providers, and
a first packet-filtering rule of the plurality of packet-filtering rules indicates at least one criterion and comprises a disposition indication, wherein the disposition indication corresponds to a disposition that is to be determined after an in-transit packet matching the first packet-filtering rule is received;
receiving, by the packet-filtering appliance from the first network and at a first time, a first in-transit packet destined to the second network;
based on determining that the first in-transit packet matches the at least one criterion of the first packet-filtering rule, the packet-filtering appliance performing:
determining first threat context information associated with the receiving the first in-transit packet;
determining, based on the first threat context information, a first disposition;
determining, based on the first disposition, a first directive;
and
applying the first disposition and the first directive to the first in-transit packet;
receiving, by the packet-filtering appliance from the first network and at a second time, a second in-transit packet destined to the second network;
and
based on determining that the second in-transit packet matches the at least one criterion of the first packet-filtering rule, the packet-filtering appliance performing:
determining second threat context information associated with the receiving the second in-transit packet, wherein the second threat context information has at least one value different from the first threat context information;
determining, based on the second threat context information and independently from the determining the first disposition, a second disposition;
determining, based on the second disposition, a second directive;
and
applying the second disposition and the second directive to the second in-transit packet.

15 more elements

A packet-filtering appliance configured to process packets in-transit traversing a boundary between a first network and a second network, the packet-filtering appliance comprising:

one or more processors;
and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, configure the packet-filtering appliance to:
receive a plurality of packet-filtering rules each indicating one or more criteria and one or more actions to be performed, wherein:
the packet-filtering rules were automatically generated based on a plurality of threat indicators that were determined based on a plurality of cyber threat intelligence reports from one or more cyber threat intelligence providers, wherein the plurality of threat indicators comprises a plurality of network addresses associated with one or more network threats identified by the one or more cyber threat intelligence providers, and
a first packet-filtering rule of the plurality of packet-filtering rules indicates at least one criterion and comprises a disposition indication, wherein the disposition indication corresponds to a disposition that is to be determined after an in-transit packet matching the first packet-filtering rule is received;
receive, from the first network and at a first time, a first in-transit packet destined to the second network;
based on determining that the first in-transit packet matches the at least one criterion of the first packet-filtering rule:
determine first threat context information associated with the receiving the first in-transit packet;
determine, based on the first threat context information, a first disposition;
determine, based on the first disposition, a first directive;
and
apply the first disposition and the first directive to the first in-transit packet;
receive, from the first network and at a second time, a second in-transit packet destined to the second network;
and
based on determining that the second in-transit packet matches the at least one criterion of the first packet-filtering rule:
determine second threat context information associated with receiving the second in-transit packet, wherein the second threat context information has at least one value different from the first threat context information;
determine, based on the second threat context information and independently from determining the first disposition, a second disposition;
determine, based on the second disposition, a second directive;
and
apply the second disposition and the second directive to the second in-transit packet.

18 more elements

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a packet-filtering appliance configured to process packets in-transit traversing a boundary between a first network and a second network, cause:

receiving, by the packet-filtering appliance, a plurality of packet-filtering rules each indicating one or more criteria and one or more actions to be performed, wherein:
the packet-filtering rules were automatically generated based on a plurality of threat indicators that were determined based on a plurality of cyber threat intelligence reports from one or more cyber threat intelligence providers, wherein the plurality of threat indicators comprises a plurality of network addresses associated with one or more network threats identified by the one or more cyber threat intelligence providers, and
a first packet-filtering rule of the plurality of packet-filtering rules indicates at least one criterion and comprises a disposition indication, wherein the disposition indication corresponds to a disposition that is to be determined after an in-transit packet matching the first packet-filtering rule is received;
receiving, by the packet-filtering appliance from the first network and at a first time, a first in-transit packet destined to the second network;
based on determining that the first in-transit packet matches the at least one criterion of the first packet-filtering rule, the packet-filtering appliance performing:
determining first threat context information associated with the receiving the first in-transit packet;
determining, based on the first threat context information, a first disposition;
determining, based on the first disposition, a first directive;
and
applying the first disposition and the first directive to the first in-transit packet;
receiving, by the packet-filtering appliance from the first network and at a second time, a second in-transit packet destined to the second network;
and
based on determining that the second in-transit packet matches the at least one criterion of the first packet-filtering rule, the packet-filtering appliance performing:
determining second threat context information associated with the receiving the second in-transit packet, wherein the second threat context information has at least one value different from the first threat context information;
determining, based on the second threat context information and independently from the determining the first disposition, a second disposition;
determining, based on the second disposition, a second directive;
and
applying the second disposition and the second directive to the second in-transit packet.

15 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Efficient threat context-aware packet filtering for network protection

Life of this patent

Efficient threat context-aware packet filtering for network protection

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims30