Cisco Technology, Inc.

Jeffrey G Schutt

Max Pritikin

Edward Albert Warnicke

A method, computer system, and computer program product are provided for automatically analyzing software packages to identify the degree of differences between compared software packages and to apply security policies. A first software bill of materials for a software package is processed to extract a plurality of components of the software package, wherein the first software bill of materials indicates a first hierarchy of components based on relationships between components. The first hierarchy is compared to a second hierarchy, the second hierarchy corresponding to a second software bill of materials, to determine a degree of difference between the first hierarchy and the second hierarchy. The degree of difference is compared to one or more threshold values. A security policy is applied with respect to the software package according to a comparison of the degree of difference to the one or more threshold values.

Automating trust in software upgrades

A method, computer system, and computer program product are provided for performing policy enforcement, attestation, and network forensics. A universal reference for a computing entity is obtained, wherein the universal reference identifies one or more components of the computing entity by additional universal references assigned to the one or more components. A hierarchical description of the computing entity is determined by enumerating each additional universal reference of the one or more components and additional sub-components, wherein the hierarchical description exhaustively identifies the components and sub-components of the computing entity. The hierarchical description is analyzed by accessing a database to identify mappings of the one or more additional universal references to the one or more components and sub-components. The one or more components and sub-components identified by the analyzing are assessed to perform one or more of: an inventory task, a policy enforcement task, an attestation task, and a forensics task.

Growing community of inventors

Davis, CA, United States of America

Jeffrey G Schutt