Bot proxy for group communication service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022141161-A1
Application number	US-202217578997-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 19, 2022
Priority date	Aug 22, 2019
Publication date	May 5, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods, systems, and software are disclosed herein for secured system access by means of a bot proxy for a bot within a group communication service. In an example embodiment, a bot within a selected group of a group communication service may receive a message from a user of the selected group. The bot may transmit, to a bot proxy node within a secured local network, information related to the message that is relevant to executing a selected command. The bot proxy node, in turn, may transmit an application programming interface (API) instruction to perform the selected command to a target server within the secured local network. The bot may send a response message, via the group communication service, to at least one user from the selected group based on a result of the selected command.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
receiving, at a box proxy node within a secured local network, command transmissions from multiple instances of a bot external to the secured local network, each instance of the bot being active in a different group of users of a group communication service, the command transmissions from the multiple instances including an identifier for a respective bot instance to which to transmit a response; transmitting, from the bot proxy node to a target server within the secured local network, an application programming interface (API) instruction to perform a selected command from the command transmissions; receiving, at the box proxy node from the target server, a response to the selected command; and transmitting the response from the box proxy node to a selected instance of the bot based on the identifier associated with the selected command.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein:
the bot proxy node is a computing device connected to the secured local network and located behind a firewall of the secured local network;
the bot proxy node communicates with the multiple instances of the bot via the internet; and
the bot proxy node is configured to shield the target server from direct internet access.

3 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
the bot proxy node is connected to a plurality of servers within the secured local network; and
the method further comprises determining, at the bot proxy node, the target server from the plurality of servers based on the selected command.

4 . The method of claim 3 wherein:
different servers from the plurality of servers are configured to execute different types of commands from the bot; and
the bot proxy node determines the target server by matching the selected command with a command processing functionality of the target server.

5 . The method of claim 3 further comprising:
determining the target server from the plurality of servers based on a processing load at the plurality of servers, to perform load balancing.

6 . The method of claim 1 further comprising generating, at the bot proxy node, the API instruction based on information received in the selected command.

7 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
performing decryption on the command transmissions at the bot proxy node; and
transmitting the API instruction from the bot proxy node to the target server only for command transmissions that were successfully decrypted.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
caching a copy of the response at the bot proxy node; and
transmitting the copy of the response from the bot proxy node in reply to a subsequent command transmission without sending the API instruction to the target server.

9 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, at the selected instance of the bot active in a selected group of users of the group communication service, a message from a user in the selected group, the selected instance of the bot comprising a software application configured to execute commands in response to messages from users of the selected group;
transmitting a command transmission from the selected instance of the bot to the bot proxy node;
receiving the response at the selected instance of the bot from the bot proxy node; and
sending, from the selected instance of the bot via the group communication service, a response message to at least one user of the selected group based on the response.

10 . A communication system comprising:
a first computing device within a secured local network configured to execute a bot proxy node to:
exchange communications via the internet between the secured local network and a bot executed at a second computing device external to the secured local network,
wherein the bot is active in a selected group of users in a group communication service;
wherein the first computing device is located behind a firewall of the secured local network and configured to shield a target server in the secured local network;

receive a command transmission from the bot;
transmit an application programming interface (API) instruction to the target server to perform a selected command based on the command transmission; and
transmit a response from the target server to the bot responsive to the command transmission.

11 . The communication system of claim 10 comprising the bot proxy node further configured to:
receive command transmissions from multiple instances of the bot, each instance of the bot being active in a different group of users of the group communication service; and
command transmissions from the multiple instances include an identifier for a respective bot instance to which to transmit the response.

12 . The communication system of claim 10 further comprising:
the bot proxy node is connected to a plurality of servers within the secured local network; and
the bot proxy node further configured to determine the target server from the plurality of servers based on the command transmission.

13 . The communication system of claim 12 wherein:
different servers from the plurality of servers are configured to execute different types of commands from the bot; and
the bot proxy node is further configured to determine the target server by matching the selected command with a command processing functionality of the target server.

14 . The communication system of claim 12 comprising the bot proxy node further configured to determine the target server from the plurality of servers based on a processing load at the plurality of servers, to perform load balancing.

15 . The communication system of claim 10 comprising the bot proxy node further configured to:
perform decryption on the command transmission; and
transmit the API instruction to the target server only when the command transmission is successfully decrypted.

16 . The communication system of claim 10 comprising the bot proxy node further configured to:
cache a copy of the response at the bot proxy node; and
transmit the copy of the response in reply to a subsequent command transmission without sending the API instruction to the target server.

17 . The communication system of claim 10 further comprising:
the second computing device executing the bot, the bot comprising a software application configured to execute commands in response to messages from the users of the selected group, the bot configured to:
receive a message from a user in the selected group;
transmit information related to the message that is relevant to execute the selected command as the command transmission; and
sending, from the bot via the group communication service, a response message to at least one user of the selected group based on the response to the selected command from the bot proxy node.

18 . A method comprising:
receiving, at a bot proxy node within a secured local network, a command transmission from a bot external to the secured local network,
wherein the bot proxy node is connected to a plurality of servers within the secured local network configured to execute different types of commands, and
wherein the bot is active in a selected group of users in a group communication service;
determining, at the bot proxy node, a target server from the plurality of servers based by matching a selected command associated with the command transmission to a command processing functionality of the target server; transmitting, from the bot proxy node to the target server, an instruction to perform the selected com

Assignees

• Orion Labs

Inventors

• Albrecht Greg
• Robbins Jesse

Classifications

• H04L51/02 Primary

  using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages · CPC title

• H04L67/56

  Provisioning of proxy services (store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54) · CPC title

• H04L12/1813

  for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms (instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04L51/10

  Multimedia information · CPC title

• G10L15/26

  Speech to text systems (G10L15/08 takes precedence) · CPC title