System and method for passively detecting a proxy
AssigneeXoom Corporation
InventorCarsten Lankheim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The existence of a proxy can be detected by examining a timing differential between handshake messages received at a server used to establish a channel according to a first protocol and the handshake messages used to establish a secondary channel on top of the first protocol (e.g., a secure communications channel). If the time between two handshakes received at the server to set up the secondary channel is greater than the time between two handshakes received at the server to establish the initial channel, the presence of a proxy can be detected.
Claims11
A method of inferring the presence of a proxy, comprising:
- identifying a first timing statistic based on a first pair of messages of a first type received from a computer;
- identifying a second timing statistic based on a second pair of messages of a second type received from the computer;
- comparing the first and second timing statistics;
- and
- making an inference that the computer is a proxy in accordance with the comparison.
A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising:
- instructions for identifying a first timing statistic based on a first pair of messages of a first type received from a computer;
- identifying a second timing statistic based on a second pairs of messages of a second type received from the computer;
- comparing the first and second timing statistics;
- and
- making an inference that the computer is a proxy in accordance with the comparison.
A system for presenting information, comprising:
- a main memory;
- a processor;
- and
- a program, stored in the main memory and executed by the processor, the program including instructions for identifying a first timing statistic based on a first pair of messages of a first type received from a computer;
- identifying a second timing statistic based on a second pair of messages of a second type received from the computer;
- comparing the first and second timing statistics;
- and
- making an inference that the computer is a proxy in accordance with the comparison.
A system for presenting information, comprising:
- means for identifying a first timing statistic based on a first pair of messages of a first type received from a computer;
- means for identifying a second timing statistic based on a second pair of messages of a second type received from the computer;
- means for comparing the first and second timing statistics;
- and
- means for making an inference that the computer is a proxy in accordance with the comparison.
A method of detecting the presence of a proxy in a communication path, comprising:
- identifying a first timing statistic based on a first pair of messages received from a communication path;
- identifying a second timing statistic based on a second pair of messages of a second type received from the communication path;
- comparing the first and second timing statistics;
- and
- detecting the presence of a proxy in the communication path based on the comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.