On-the-fly contents-based access control system
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorNiels Thomas Ferguson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An access control system applies contents-based policies to data that is being transferred. This transfer can be between different computers, different operating systems on a single computer, different applications within on the same operating system, or different parts of the same operating system, for example. Data is scanned at a scan engine associated with a security reference monitor (SRM) as the data is being transmitted, on-the-fly. The data is forwarded directly to the recipient, so the data is not stored at the SRM. The data is encrypted at the SRM as it comes by, and the key is revealed to the recipient if it is subsequently determined that the transfer is allowed.
Claims16
An access control method implemented on a computing device having a processor and memory on which is instantiated a security reference monitor (SRM), the method comprising:
- receiving, at the SRM, a stream of data from a first entity;
- scanning the streamed data with a scan engine of the SRM to determine, based on predetermined criteria, whether the streamed data should be withheld from an intended recipient of the streamed data;
- encrypting the streamed data with an encryptor of the SRM and according to a cryptographic key selected for the streamed data;
- transmitting, on-the-fly, the encrypted streamed data from the SRM to the intended recipient without storing the streamed data at the SRM;
- and
- determining, by a processor, to transmit the cryptographic key from the SRM to the intended recipient at the end of the transmission of the encrypted streamed data only if the scan engine of the SRM determines based on the predetermined criteria that the transmission should be allowed.
An access control system, comprising:
- a security reference monitor (SRM) that receives a stream of data from a first entity;
- an encryptor of the SRM that encrypts the streamed data according to a cryptographic key selected for the streamed data;
- and
- a scan engine of the SRM that scans the streamed data to determine based on predetermined criteria whether the streamed data should be withheld from an intended recipient of the streamed data,
- the SRM transmitting, on-the-fly, the encrypted streamed data to the intended recipient without storing the streamed data at the SRM;
- and
- the SRM transmitting the cryptographic key to the intended recipient only if the scan engine of the SRM determines, at the end of the transmission of the encrypted streamed data, based on the predetermined criteria, that the transmission should be allowed.
A security reference monitor (SRM), comprising:
- an input device that receives a stream of data from a first entity;
- an encryptor that encrypts the streamed data according to a cryptographic key selected for the streamed data;
- and
- a scan engine that scans the streamed data to determine based on predetermined criteria whether the streamed data should be withheld from an intended recipient of the streamed data,
- the SRM transmitting, on-the-fly, the encrypted streamed data to the intended recipient without storing the streamed data at the SRM,
- the SRM transmitting the cryptographic key to the intended recipient only if the scan engine of the SRM determines, at the end of the transmission of the encrypted streamed data, based on the predetermined criteria, that the transmission should be allowed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.