Just-in-time access based on screening criteria to maintain control of restricted data in cloud computing environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020045083-A1
Application number	US-201916601139-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 14, 2019
Priority date	Nov 5, 2015
Publication date	Feb 6, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A JIT service in a cloud computing environment manages just-in-time access to resources in the cloud computing environment for an external device. When JIT access to a resource is requested by a device, the JIT service retrieves a JIT policy for the resource that includes screening criteria limiting automatic granting of JIT access to users who meet the screening criteria. Screening information for a user associated with the request is evaluated against one or more screening requirements set forth by the screening criteria. If the screening criteria and any other criteria of the JIT policy are satisfied, the JIT service provisions JIT access to the resource for the device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computerized system comprising:
one or more hardware processors; and one or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more hardware processors to:
receive, at a service within a cloud computing environment, a request for just-in-time (JIT) access to a resource within a production environment of the cloud computing environment, the request specifying request parameters including a level or type of access requested and information regarding an incident in the cloud computing environment;
access, from a database of JIT policies stored in the cloud computing environment for a plurality of resources within the production environment of the cloud computing environment, a JIT policy for the resource specified by the request, the JIT policy stored in the database for processing by the service within the cloud computing environment to allow the service to automatically determine whether to grant JIT access to the resource;
determine, from the JIT policy for the resource, screening criteria restricting JIT access to the resource, the screening criteria specifying one or more security clearance procedures;
determine, by the service within the cloud computing environment, whether to approve the request for JIT access based at least in part on automatically evaluating the request parameters using the JIT policy for the resource to determine whether the level or type of access requested is automatically approved depending on: (1) a type of the incident, (2) whether the incident is active, and (3) a comparison of screening information for a user associated with the request for JIT access to the screening criteria from the JIT policy; and
based on determining to automatically approve the request for JIT access, provision a JIT access session including setting a time limit for the JIT access session.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the JIT policy includes additional criteria, and wherein the determination to approve the request for JIT access is also based on the additional criteria being satisfied.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer-useable instructions further cause the one or more hardware processors to: receive the screening information for the user associated with the request for JIT access by retrieving the screening information for the user associated with the request for JIT access from a database of screening information for a plurality of users.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the request for JIT access includes a user identifier for the user associated with the request for JIT access, and wherein the screening information for the user associated with the request for JIT access is accessed from the database using the user identifier.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more security clearance procedures comprise one or more background checks or one or more criminal checks.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the comparison of the screening information for the user associated with the request for JIT access to the screening criteria comprises comparing the screening information to the one or more security clearance procedures to verify the one or more background checks or one or more criminal checks have been performed for the user associated with the request for JIT access.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the JIT access session is revoked when the time limit for the JIT access session expires.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the JIT access session is revoked in response to a command during the JIT access session.

9 . One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a service within the cloud computing environment, a request for a just-in-time (JIT) access session to access a resource in a production environment of a cloud computing environment, the request specifying request parameters including a level or type of access requested and information regarding an incident in the cloud computing environment; accessing a JIT policy for the resource from a database of JIT policies stored in the cloud computing environment for a plurality of resources in the production environment of the cloud computing environment, the JIT policy stored in the database for processing by the service within the cloud computing environment to allow the service to automatically determine whether to grant JIT access to the resource; determining that the JIT policy for the resource includes screening criteria restricting JIT access to the resource, the screening criteria specifying one or more security clearance procedures; determining, by the service within the cloud computing environment, to automatically approve the request for the JIT access session based at least in part on automatically evaluating the request parameters using the JIT policy for the resource to determine whether the level or type of access requested is automatically approved depending on: (1) a type of the incident; (2) whether the incident is active; and (3) a comparison of screening information for a user associated with the request for the JIT access session to the screening criteria of the JIT policy for the resource; and based on determining to automatically approve the request for the JIT access session, provisioning the JIT access session including setting a time limit for the JIT access.

10 . The one or more computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein the JIT policy includes one or more additional criteria, and wherein determining whether to automatically approve the request for the JIT access session comprises determining whether information regarding the request for the JIT access session also satisfies the one or more additional criteria.

11 . The one or more computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise: receiving screening information for the user associated with the request for the JIT access session by retrieving the screening information for the user associated with the request for the JIT access session from a database of screening information for a plurality of users using a user identifier included in the request for JIT access.

12 . The one or more computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein the screening criteria specifies one or more screening requirements, and wherein comparison of the screening information for the user associated with the request for the JIT access session to the screening criteria comprises comparing the screening information to the one or more screening requirements to determine if the one or more screening requirements are satisfied based on the screening information.

13 . The one or more computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein the JIT access session is revoked when the time limit for the JIT access expires.

14 . The one or more computer storage media of claim 11 , wherein provisioning the JIT access session comprises providing the level or type of access to the resource for the time limit.

15 . A computerized method comprising:
receiving, at a service within a cloud computing environment, a request for a just-in-time (JIT) access session to a resource within the cloud computing environment, the request specifying request parameters including a level or type of access requested and information regarding an incident; accessing, from a database of JIT policies stored in the cloud computing environment for a plurality of resources within the cloud computing envir

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Prasad Ramnath
• Nair Pradeep Ayyappan
• Ramachandran Veena
• Kalarickal Sandeep
• Knudson Thomas
• Bandla Pavan Gopal
• Shankar Chetan
• Sanyal Ranajoy
• Wu Qingsu
• Zhou Chi
• Kirschner Doug
• Meyer Ryan
• Keane Thomas

Classifications

• H04L63/105

  Multiple levels of security · CPC title

• H04L67/1021

  based on client or server locations · CPC title

• H04L63/108

  when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time · CPC title

• G06F8/60

  Software deployment · CPC title

• H04L63/20 Primary

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title