Data access control based on storage validation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10496598-B2
Application number	US-201514868759-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2015
Priority date	Sep 29, 2015
Publication date	Dec 3, 2019
Grant date	Dec 3, 2019

Abstract

A system and method to control access to data are disclosed. A command to mount a specified file system as a trusted file system is received. Whether the specified file system is marked as a trustable file system is determined, where marking as a trustable file system based on verifying integrity protection for the specified file system. The specified file system is mounted as a trusted file system based on determining that the specified file system is marked as a trustable file system. A command to access data on the specified file system is received. A determination is made as to whether the specified file system was mounted with a specification to be a trusted file system. Access to the data is permitted or denied based on determining that the mounting specified mounting as a trusted file system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
maintaining a set of trustable file system indicators;
verifying, prior to receiving a command to mount a specified file system within at least one file system, integrity protection for the at least one file system based on determining that a system performing the integrity protection is operating on the at least one file system and indicates that that the integrity of the file system is being maintained;
storing, prior to receiving the command to mount the at least one file system and based on the verifying integrity protection for the specified file system within the at least one file system, a respective trustable file system indicator associated with the specified file system within the set of trustable file system indicators;
receiving, on a processor subsequent to storing the respective trustable file system indicator, the command to mount the specified file system, wherein the command indicates that the specified file system is to be mounted as a trusted file system;
determining, based on the receiving the command to mount a specified file system, that the respective trustable file system indicator associated with the specified file system within the set of trustable file system indicators indicates that the specified file system is marked as a trustable file system, the specified file system being marked as a trustable file system; and
mounting, based on receiving the command and based on determining that the specified file system is marked as a trustable file system, the specified file system as a trusted file system.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a command to access data on the specified file system;
determining, based on receiving the command to access data, that the command to mount the specified file system specified mounting the specified file system as a trusted file system;
accessing the data based on determining that the command to mount specified mounting as a trusted file system; and
avoiding access of the data based on determining that the command to mount did not specify mounting as a trusted file system.

3. The method of claim 2 , where the command to access data comprises a command to execute a process with an elevated privilege, where the process is defined by the data.

4. The method of claim 2 , where the command to access data comprises a command to retrieve the data.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of trustable file system indicators comprises a respective trustable file system indicator that is associated with each respective file system for which integrity protection has been verified, the respective trustable file system indicator reflecting marking of its associated file system as a trustable file system.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, from among a plurality of file systems, the specified file system as a file system to mount as a trusted file system; and
initiating, based on determining the specified file system, the command to mount the specified file system as a trusted file system.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising storing configuration data for a plurality of file systems, the plurality of file systems comprising the specified file system, and
wherein the determining the specified file system is based on the configuration data.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying is performed prior to mounting the specified file system and while the specified file system is not mounted.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying is performed during a boot process of the system performing integrity protection.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verifying is performed prior to mounting the specified file system and at a time when the specified file system is first presented to the system performing the integrity protection.

11. A device, comprising:
a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor;
a data storage, coupled to the processor, the data storage comprising at least one file system; and
a file system mounting processor that when operating:
maintain a set of trustable file system indicators;
verify, prior to receiving a command to mount a specified file system within at least one file system, integrity protection for the at least one file system based on determining that a system performing the integrity protection is operating on the at least one file system and indicates that that the integrity of the file system is being maintained;
store, prior to receiving the command to mount the at least one file system and based on verification of integrity protection for the specified file system within the at least one file system, a respective trustable file system indicator associated with the specified file system within the set of trustable file system indicators;
receives, subsequent to storing the respective trustable file system indicator, the command to mount the specified file system, wherein the command indicates that the specified file system is to be mounted as a trusted file system;
determines, based on receiving the command to mount a specified file system, that the respective trustable file system indicator associated with the specified file system within the set of trustable file system indicators indicates that the specified file system is marked as a trustable file system, the specified file system being marked as a trustable file system; and

mounts, based on receiving the command and based on determining that the specified file system is marked as a trustable file system, the specified file system as a trusted file system.

12. The device of claim 11 , further comprising a data access control processor that when operating:
receives a command to access data on the specified file system;
determines, based on the receiving the command to access data, that the command to mount the specified file system specified mounting the specified file system as a trusted file system;
accesses the data based on determining that the command to mount specified mounting as a trusted file system; and
avoids access of the data based on determining that the command to mount did not specify mounting as a trusted file system.

13. The device of claim 12 , where the command to access integrity protected data comprises a command to execute a process with an elevated privilege, where the process is defined by the integrity protected data.

14. The device of claim 12 , where the command to access integrity protected data comprises a command to retrieve the integrity protected data.

15. The device of claim 12 , wherein the command to mount the specified file system further specifies at least one allowed access type from within a plurality of access types, each allowed access type within the plurality of access types indicating an access type authorized for data on the specified file system, and where the file system mounting processor, when operating:
determines a requested access type corresponding to the command to access the data, and
wherein access to the data is further based on the requested access type corresponding to one of the at least one allowed access type.

16. The device of claim 15 , wherein the command to mount the specified file system specifies a plurality of allowed access types, and
wherein access to the data is further based on the requested access type corresponding to an allowed access type within the plurality of allowed access types.

17. The device of claim 11 , where the set of trustable file system indicators comprises a respective trustable file system indicator

Assignees

• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Wurster Glenn Daniel
• Legault David

Classifications

• G06F21/604 Primary

  Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems · CPC title

• G06F21/6218

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• H04L63/10

  for controlling access to devices or network resources · CPC title

• G06F16/182

  Distributed file systems · CPC title

• G06F16/11 Primary

  File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14) · CPC title