Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Art Shelest

Christian F Huitema

Scott Field

Nk Srinivas

David G Thaler

Brian Don Zill

Gregory O'Shea

Michael Roe

Jesper Mikael Johansson

Jason Garms

David Abzarian

Michael Todd Kramer

Pradeep Bahl

Richard Bruce Ward

Carl Melvin Ellison

Eran Yariv

Sanjay N Kaniyar

Sterling M Reasor

Alexandru Gavrilescu

Peter Sewall Ford

Carl M Carter-Schwendler

Gregory D Hartrell

David Charles LeBlanc

Jonathan Lee Burstein

Dennis A Morgan

Gary Scot Henderson

James M Gilroy

Subhashini Raghunathan

Scott K Holden

Richard Paul Tarquini

A computer assigns networks to network zones based on predefined properties for each zone and/or the properties of the networks. An application program installed on the computer provides the computer with preference information that indicates the network zone whose network policies or properties are best suited for the application program. Thereafter, when executing the application program, the computer limits network contact for the application program to the network(s) that is assigned to the network zone(s) identified as a preferred network zone(s) or identified by a preferred network property or properties by the preference information from the application program.

Network zones

Disclosed is an authentication mechanism that enables an information recipient to ascertain that the information comes from the sender it purports to be from. This mechanism integrates a private/public key pair with selection by the sender of a portion of its address. The sender derives its address from its public key, for example, by using a hash of the key. The recipient verifies the association between the address and the sender's private key. The recipient may retrieve the key from an insecure resource and know that it has the correct key because only that key can produce the sender's address in the message. The hash may be made larger than the sender-selectable portion of the address. The recipient may cache public key/address pairs and use the cache to detect brute force attacks and to survive denial of service attacks. The mechanism may be used to optimize security negotiation algorithms.

Methods and systems for unilateral authentication of messages

A system and method for protecting a computer system connected to a communication network from a potential vulnerability. The system and method protects a computer system that is about to undergo or has just undergone a change in state that may result in placing the computer system at risk to viruses, and the like, over a communication network. The system and method first detect an imminent or recent change in state. A security component and a fixing component react to the detection of the change in state. The security component may raise the security level to block incoming network information, other than information from a secure or known location, or information requested by the computer system. The fixing component implements a fixing routine, such as installing missing updates or patches, and on successfully completing the fixing routine, the security level is relaxed or lowered.

Dynamic protection of unpatched machines

A method to negotiate computer settings in advance is presented. A prediction is made to determine if the computer setting will be needed, and if needed, whether a value outside of a normal range of values will be needed. A value for the computer setting that is outside of the normal range of values is determined and the value is set to the outside value. A value within the normal range of values is used if it was predicted that there is no need for a value outside of the normal range of values.

Method for advance negotiation of computer settings

A method and system for selectively excluding a program from a security policy is provided. The security system receives from a user an indication of a program with a problem that is to be excluded from the security policy. When the program executes and a security enforcement event occurs, the security system does not apply the security policy. If the problem appears to be resolved as a result of excluding the program from the security policy, then the user may assume that the security policy is the cause of the problem.

Method and system for troubleshooting when a program is adversely impacted by a security policy

Technology for applying a communications traffic security policy in which a distinct communications traffic flow is segregated based upon a security value; whereby the communications traffic security policy include one or both of a detection and an enforcement policy. The detection policy may include determining whether the segregated communications traffic flow involves malware; and, the enforcement policy may include a malware policy.

Communications traffic segregation for security purposes

A system and method that utilizes clean groups for reducing security management complexity. The system reduces the complexity of managing security technologies by automatically assigning objects such as computers or persons to clean groups which are defined by existing management infrastructure. In an embodiment where members are computers, ongoing automatic efforts ensure that clean groups include only computers that satisfy specified security principles, which allows administrators to treat all computers that are in compliance as a group. Separately, the members of the clean group are required to implement self-governance, which is an ability to detect being compromised and to take steps to remove themselves from the clean group when they are compromised. In addition to attempting to remove itself from the clean group, a compromised computer may take additional steps aimed at minimizing further damage, such as erasing or hiding computer domain credentials, hiding/protecting/disabling cryptographic (e.g. EFS) keys, or logging out a user.

System and method utilizing clean groups for security management

A method and system for obfuscating computer code of a program to protect it from the adverse effects of malware is provided. The obfuscation system retrieves an executable form of the computer code. The obfuscation system then selects various obfuscation techniques to use in obfuscating the computer code. The obfuscation system applies the selected obfuscation techniques to the computer code. The obfuscation system then causes the obfuscated computer code to execute.

Obfuscating computer code to prevent an attack

A conditional activation system distributes a security policy to the computer systems of an enterprise. Upon receiving a security policy at a computer system, the computer system may install the received security policy without activation. When a security policy is installed without activation, it is loaded onto a computer system but is not used to process security enforcement events. The computer system may then determine whether a security policy activation criterion has been satisfied and, if so, activate the security policy.

Conditional activation of security policies

A method and system that enables a security policy to separate developer-provided detection criteria from an administrator-provided custom policy is provided. The security system allows a developer of detection criteria to provide a signature file containing the signatures that are available for use by a security policy. The security system also allows an administrator of a computer system to specify a custom policy that uses the signatures of the signature file. The developer may distribute the signature file to host computer systems independently of the administrator's distribution of the rules of the custom policy to the host computer systems. When a security enforcement event occurs at the host computer system, the security system applies the rules of the security policy to the event.

Method and system for separating rules of a security policy from detection criteria

A method for a firewall-aware application to communicate its expectations to a firewall without requiring the firewall to change its policy or compromise network security. An application API is provided for applications to inform a firewall or firewalls of the application's needs, and a firewall API is provided that informs the firewall or firewalls of the application's needs. An interception module watches for connect and listen attempts by applications and services to the network stack on the local computer. The interception module traps these attempts and determines what user is making the attempt, what application or service is making the attempt, and conducts a firewall policy look-up to determine whether the user and/or application or service are allowed to connect to the network. If so, the interception module may instruct the host and/or edge firewall to configure itself for the connection being requested.

Method of assisting an application to traverse a firewall

An intrusion detection system for customizing a security policy that detects an attempt to exploit a vulnerability is provided. A security policy contains criteria and a procedure. The criteria specify attributes of a security event that may be an exploitation, and the procedure specifies instructions to be performed that indicate when a security event may be an exploitation. When the criteria and the procedure both indicate that a security event may be an exploitation, then the security event matches the security policy and an appropriate action is taken. The intrusion detection system allows a user to modify the criteria to customize the security policy.

Method and system for customizing a security policy

An application contacts the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) with a request for a job, along with the name or identifier of a data stream to pattern match against, the name or identifier of the pattern set to use, and whether the job is partial or full. Depending on the priority rules set by the ASIC administrator, the ASIC may stop the job it is currently doing and begin work on the new job, or wait until the current job is finished before starting the new job. The ASIC determines if the pattern set for the new job is already stored in the cache, and contacts the calling application if it is not. Once the correct pattern set is loaded, the ASIC begins pattern matching on the requested data stream. The data stream is compared byte by byte with the each of the patterns in the loaded set. The ASIC will return a match to the calling application if a match has been made with one of the patterns in the pattern set.

Hardware assist for pattern matches

An initial sequence number generator is provided that prevents the local server from being attacked while maintaining reliable data transfer. A random intermediate value is created that is unique to each connection identifier and is combined with a random value created from a global counter to generate the initial sequence number. The counter capable of monotonically increasing by both a fixed and variable amount for ensuring that the same connection identifier does not have data collisions from competing sequence numbers within a predetermined period of time, and also to ensures randomness of the initial sequence number on a per connection basis for preventing attacks on the local server.

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Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Art Shelest