Secure and lightweight traffic forwarding systems and methods to cloud based network security systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9350644-B2
Application number	US-201414560609-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2014
Priority date	Apr 13, 2012
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Grant date	May 24, 2016

Abstract

A method implemented by an agent operating on a mobile device communicating to a cloud-based system includes opening up local listening sockets on the mobile device; redirecting outgoing traffic from all application on the mobile device except the agent to the local listening sockets; and forwarding the outgoing traffic from the local listening sockets to the cloud-based system with additional information included therein for the cloud-based system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method implemented by an agent operating on a mobile device communicating to a cloud-based system, the method comprising:
opening up local listening sockets on the mobile device;
redirecting outgoing traffic from all applications on the mobile device except the agent to the local listening sockets; and
forwarding the outgoing traffic from the local listening sockets to the cloud-based system with additional information included therein for the cloud-based system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the local listening sockets are a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) listening socket for Web traffic and a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) listening socket for Domain Name System (DNS) traffic.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the redirecting outgoing traffic comprises using an Internet Protocol (IP) tables, firewall rules-based approach where the agent configures firewall rules to reroute the outgoing traffic to the local listening sockets.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the redirecting outgoing traffic comprises using a tunnel interface approach using a tunnel interface to reroute the outgoing traffic to the local listening sockets.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
applying local policies at the mobile device, through the agent, prior to forwarding the outgoing traffic.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the cloud-based system is configured to apply remote policies subsequent to the forwarding the outgoing traffic.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
blocking an outgoing request based on the outgoing traffic based on the local policies and displaying a locally generated end user notification.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the local policies comprise bandwidth quota limits.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the additional information comprises any of app unique package name, app version, operating system version, device model, and agent app version.

10. A mobile device, comprising:
a network interface communicatively coupled to a network, a processor communicatively coupled to the network interface, and memory storing instructions that when executed cause the processor to:
open up local listening sockets on the mobile device;
redirect outgoing traffic from all applications on the mobile device except an agent to the local listening sockets; and
forward the outgoing traffic from the local listening sockets to a cloud-based system with additional information included therein for the cloud-based system.

11. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein the local listening sockets are a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) listening socket for Web traffic and a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) listening socket for Domain Name System (DNS) traffic.

12. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein the outgoing traffic is redirected using an Internet Protocol (IP) tables, firewall rules-based approach where the agent configures firewall rules to reroute the outgoing traffic to the local listening sockets.

13. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein the outgoing traffic is redirected using a tunnel interface approach using a tunnel interface to reroute the outgoing traffic to the local listening sockets.

14. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein the memory storing instructions that when executed further cause the processor to:
apply local policies at the mobile device, through the agent, prior to forwarding the outgoing traffic.

15. The mobile device of claim 14 , wherein the cloud-based system is configured to apply remote policies subsequent to the forwarding the outgoing traffic.

16. The mobile device of claim 14 , wherein the memory storing instructions that when executed further cause the processor to:
block an outgoing request based on the outgoing traffic based on the local policies and displaying a locally generated end user notification.

17. The mobile device of claim 14 , wherein the local policies comprise bandwidth quota limits.

18. The mobile device of claim 14 , wherein the additional information comprises any of app unique package name, app version, operating system version, device model, and agent app version.

Assignees

• Desai Purvi
• Mahajan Vikas
• Bansal Abhinav
• Zscaler Inc

Inventors

• Desai Purvi
• Mahajan Vikas
• Bansal Abhinav

Classifications

• H04L63/0263

  Rule management · CPC title

• H04L63/1441

  Countermeasures against malicious traffic (countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002) · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L43/10

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• H04L45/14 Primary

  Routing performance; Theoretical aspects · CPC title