US 2001/0033657 A1 · Method and systems for identifying the existence of one or more unknown programs in a system

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and systems for improving data security in a computer system. In particular, disclosed are methods and systems for writing a sequence of pseudorandom bits to a computer system's memory, where the number of bits written is equal to the expected size of the computer system's free memory. As such, if one or more unknown programs are resident in the computer system's memory, the methods and systems will be unable to write bits to the memory in which the unknown programs reside. Then, these methods and systems attempt to read these bits from the computer system's memory. Thus, if an unknown program is resident in the computer system's memory, the unknown program will have to correctly guess the bits that were attempted to be written in the memory in which the unknown program resides. Thus, if the read bits do not match the written bits, the existence of an unknown program may be determined. Further disclosed are methods and systems for determining if any bits are improperly transmitted to an unauthorized location. For example, in certain systems it is desirable to maintain data security and to ensure that secure bits are not improperly transmitted to someplace other than for use by an application program. Such methods and systems check for any such unauthorized input/output activity.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A method for identifying the existence of one or more unknown programs in a system, said method comprising the steps of:

attempting to write a predetermined number of bits to a memory in the system, wherein the predetermined number of bits is based on size of the memory;
determining if any of the bits attempted to be written to the memory are transmitted to someplace other than the memory;
reading from the memory a number of bits equal to the predetermined number of bits attempted to be written to the memory;
determining if the bits read from the memory match the bits attempted to be written to the memory;
and
determining that no unknown program is resident in the memory if the read bits match the bits attempted to be written and that none of the bits attempted to be written were transmitted to someplace other than the memory.

3 more elements

A system, comprising:

at least one processor;
a memory;
at least one storage device,
wherein the at least one storage device stores a program that the at least one processor executes to perform a method comprising the steps of:
attempting to write a predetermined number of bits to the memory, where the predetermined number is based on size of the memory;
reading a number of bits from the memory that is equal to the predetermined number of bits attempted to be written to the memory, and
determining if the bits read from the memory match the bits attempted to be written to the memory;
and
a circuit that determines if any of the bits attempted to be written to the memory are transmitted to someplace other than the memory.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and systems for identifying the existence of one or more unknown programs in a system

Life of this patent

Method and systems for identifying the existence of one or more unknown programs in a system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21