The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 08, 2013
Filed:
Apr. 21, 2003
James W. O'toole, Jr., Somerville, MA (US);
James W. O'Toole, Jr., Somerville, MA (US);
CISCO TECHNOLOGY, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A device for managing secure communications by examining message packets to detect and control the use of encryption keys noninvasively examines an incoming message packet according to typical cryptographic protocols and sequences. If an incoming packet exhibits the use of an encryption key, such as via IKEP, IPsec, or PPTP, the device processes the packet to attempt to find the corresponding encryption key. The device compares the key to a list of known suspect keys to determine a blocked status. If the key is not on the list, a sequence of authorization rules concerning prohibited key usage attempts to determine a result. The authorization rules examine available keying attributes from the message packet, possibly via a remote server, and compute an indication concerning key usage. If the authorization rules are still undeterministic of usage of the key, the device uses a default action. The default action indicates whether to allow or block usage of the key until a deterministic response indicates the key status.