Method and apparatus for checking security vulnerability of networked devices
AssigneeMCI WorldCom, Inc.
InventorBob Fudge
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a method of and apparatus for ascertaining system vulnerabilities of shareable devices, such as servers in a network, starting with only a list of all assigned addresses used by the system. A query is sent consecutively to each address on the list. Those addresses from which a response is not received are filtered from the list and used to generate an “unused” list. By checking the response received from the remaining addresses, non shareable devices may be ascertained and likewise filtered from the list while being used to generate a “non shareable” list. The remaining addresses thus all relate to shareable devices which can then be efficiently scanned for system vulnerabilities and a report generated as to data revealed when a report is desired.
Claims15
A data network, comprising:
- a plurality of devices connected to a data network, wherein each of said devices correspond to a unique address in a range of addresses;
- an exposure analysis processor connected to said data network that determines a classification of each of said unique addresses in said range of addresses, wherein the classification is one in a group of classifications consisting of unused addresses, non-sharable device addresses and shareable device addresses;
- and
- a vulnerability scanner connected to said data network for selectively scanning only those addresses classified as shareable device addresses by said exposure analysis processor.
A method of scanning for vulnerabilities of a plurality of devices in a data network, wherein each device corresponds to a unique address in a range of addresses, the method comprising the steps of:
- classifying each of the unique addresses in the range of addresses corresponding to the plurality of devices in the data network, including classifying each address as an unused address, a non-shareable device address or as a shareable device address;
- identifying which of said plurality of devices are shareable devices are shareable devices;
- and selectively scanning those derives which are identified as shareable devices for vulnerabilities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.