Symantec Corporation

Ca, Inc.

Nortonlifelock Inc.

Spencer Dale Smith

Adam Glick

Nicholas Graf

Haik A Mesropian

Patrick Gardner

Mark Kevin Kennedy

Joseph Chen

Michael Spertus

Ian Oliver

Petrus Johannes Viljoen

Peter Ferrie

David Kane

Nobuto Hotta

Alexander Danileiko

Peter Linhardt

Frank X Barajas

Jordan Saxonberg

Uriel Mann

Tim Naftel

Shaun Aimoto

Dinesh Bhirud

Paul D Hernandez

Costin Ionescu

Puya Partow-Navid

Adam Lyle Glice

Qubo Song

Richard Gough

Identifying and mitigating harm from malicious network connections by a container. In some embodiments, a method may include receiving, from a shim, notifications of all network connections that a container has sought to establish through the shim. The method may also include monitoring all actual network connections established by the container. The method may further include comparing the notifications to the actual network connections to determine whether any actual network connection established by the container bypassed the shim. The method may also include, in response to determining that any actual network connection established by the container bypassed the shim, identifying the network connection established by the container that bypassed the shim as a malicious network connection, and performing a security action to mitigate harm from the malicious network connection.

Identifying and mitigating harm from malicious network connections by a container

The disclosed computer-implemented method for managing endpoint security states using passive data integrity attestations may include (i) receiving passively collected network data from an endpoint device of a computing environment, (ii) determining a security state of the endpoint device using the passively collected network data from the endpoint device, (iii) determining that the security state of the endpoint device is below a threshold, and (iv) in response to determining that the security state of the endpoint device is below a threshold, performing a security action to protect the computing environment against malicious actions. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for managing endpoint security states using passive data integrity attestations

The disclosed computer-implemented method for protecting website visitors may include (i) retrieving an instance of a website that was dynamically generated by aggregating multiple website subcomponents, (ii) decomposing the instance of the website into the multiple website subcomponents, (iii) checking whether a website subcomponent has been previously scanned by a security scanner, (iv) accelerating a review of the instance of the website by reusing results of a previous scan of the website subcomponent that was performed in response to retrieving a different instance of the website subcomponent rather than performing an original scan of the website subcomponent, and (v) protecting a visitor of the website by modifying a display of the instance of the website based on the accelerated review of the instance of the website that reused results of the previous scan of the website subcomponent. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for protecting website visitors

A computer-implemented method for tracking the flow of user information over a network may include (i) recording user information transmitted from a user's computing device, (ii) identifying at least one third-party communication that utilizes at least a portion of the user information, (iii) deriving communication metadata from the third-party communication, (iv) generating, based on the communication metadata and the recorded user information, an information flow report that describes (A) the user information that was transmitted over the network connection, (B) at least one third-party communication that utilized elements of the user information, and (C) at least one element of user information utilized by the third-party communication, and (v) providing the information flow report to the user via a graphical user interface (GUI). Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for tracking the flow of user information over a network

The disclosed computer-implemented method for uniquely identifying malicious advertisements may include (1) associating, by a browser advertisement platform, a browser advertisement with a unique identifier for the browser advertisement, (2) transmitting, by the browser advertisement platform, the browser advertisement to be displayed on at least one endpoint computing device in conjunction with the unique identifier, (3) receiving, at the browser advertisement platform, a message from the endpoint computing device that includes the unique identifier and that indicates that the browser advertisement was associated with malicious activity on the endpoint computing device, and (4) performing, by the browser advertisement platform, a security action on the browser advertisement in response to the message indicating that the browser advertisement with the unique identifier was associated with the malicious activity. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for uniquely identifying malicious advertisements

A system and method for detecting potential system vulnerabilities to malicious attacks. A list of routes between computing devices and associated threat levels is maintained as network events occur between computing devices. The routes include bad hygiene endpoints, high value targets which are a variety of server types controlling access to sensitive data, and network connections. A list of routes connecting high value targets and bad hygiene endpoints are sorted by a priority level and used to identify potential routes. When a network event corresponding to a given route is detected, the list is searched to identify potential routes. Potential routes are monitored routes with no network events detected yet between the source and destination.

System and method for prioritizing endpoints and detecting potential routes to high value assets

A computer-implemented method for preventing the execution of online malvertising may include (1) maintaining a database of software version information for at least one client device, (2) detecting a request from the client device to access a website that contains active advertising content, (3) identifying, by querying the database of software version information, a vulnerability in at least one software element on the client device that may be used to deliver the active advertising content, and (4) preventing delivery of the active advertising content to the client device. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for preventing the execution of online malvertising

A method for restoring applications may include: 1) identifying an installation file that includes an application; 2) monitoring the installation file to identify a set of application files generated as a result of installing the application from the installation file; 3) assigning, to each application file in the set of application files, an application identifier that associates each application file in the set of application files with the application; 4) backing up the application by copying each application file in the set of application files to a backup storage system; 5) receiving a request to restore each application file in the set of application files; and 6) restoring the application by using the application identifier to locate each application file in the set of application files within the backup storage system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for restoring applications

A computer-implemented method for using reputation information to evaluate the trustworthiness of files obtained via torrent transactions may include (1) identifying a torrent file that includes metadata for facilitating a torrent transaction for obtaining a target file via a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol, (2) identifying at least one entity involved in the torrent transaction, (3) obtaining reputation information associated with the entity involved in the torrent transaction, wherein the reputation information identifies a community's opinion on the trustworthiness of the entity, (4) determining, based at least in part on the reputation information associated with the entity involved in the torrent transaction, that the target file represents a potential security risk, and then (5) performing a security action on the target file. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for using reputation information to evaluate the trustworthiness of files obtained via torrent transactions

A method and apparatus for detecting malware transmission through a web portal is provided. In one embodiment, a method for detecting malicious software transmission through the web portal comprises accessing a security scan history that comprises information regarding a plurality of executables that are scanned upon executable creation and comparing current executable creation activity with the security scan history to identify at least one executable that is not scanned.

Method and apparatus for detecting malicious software transmission through a web portal

A computer-implemented method for detecting fraudulent software applications that generate misleading notifications is disclosed. In one example, such a method may comprise: 1) detecting a notification generated by an application installed on the computing device, 2) accessing criteria for determining, based at least in part on characteristics of the notification, whether the application is trustworthy, 3) determining, by applying the criteria, that the application is untrustworthy, and then 4) performing a security operation on the application. Corresponding systems and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for detecting fraudulent software applications that generate misleading notifications

An interstitial manager () monitors () network communications received by a client computer and detects () a potential to initiate contact with a remote computer system. When a potential to initiate contact with a remote computer system is detected (), the interstitial manager () determines () whether the potential to initiate contact with the remote computer system entails redirection to an alternate location. The determination () of whether the potential to initiate contact with the remote system entails redirection is responsive to satisfying at least one condition from the group of conditions consisting of determining whether a client browser attempts to contact an address associated with the remote computer system, and identifying at least one link embedded within the network communication possessing characteristics consistent with interstitial redirection. Responsive to determining () that the potential to initiate contact with the remote computer system entails redirection to an alternate location, the interstitial manager () invokes () interstitial management procedures.

Interstitial redirection management

A computer-implemented method for user-directed malware remediation may include 1) identifying a window within a graphical user interface of a computing environment, 2) identifying a user-directed interface event directed at the window, 3) determining, based at least in part on the user-directed interface event, that a process represented by the window poses a security risk, and 4) performing a remediation action on the process based on determining that the process poses the security risk. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for user-directed malware remediation

Computer-implemented methods and systems for using tiered signing certificates to manage the behavior of executables are disclosed. In one example, a method for performing such a task may include: 1) identifying an executable file, 2) identifying a signing certificate associated with the executable file, 3) identifying, within the signing certificate, a privilege level associated with the executable file, and then 4) managing behavior of the executable file in accordance with the privilege level associated with the executable file. Corresponding methods and systems for generating tiered signing certificates for executable files are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for using tiered signing certificates to manage the behavior of executables

An endpoint on a network uses detection data to detect a malicious software attack. The endpoint identifies content associated with the attack, such as a component of a web page, and generates a description of the content. The endpoint sends the description to a security server. The security server analyzes the content and identifies characteristics of the content that are present when the content is carried by network traffic. The security server generates a traffic signature that specifies the identified characteristics and provides the traffic signature to inspection points. The inspection points, in turn, use the traffic signature to examine network traffic passing through the inspection points to detect network traffic carrying the content. The attack detection at the endpoint thus informs the traffic signature-based detection at the inspection points and reduces the spread of malicious software.

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El Segundo, CA, United States of America

Spencer Dale Smith