Systems for network risk assessment including processing of user access rights associated with a network of devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9648036-B2
Application number	US-201615209434-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2016
Priority date	Dec 29, 2014
Publication date	May 9, 2017
Grant date	May 9, 2017

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for network risk assessment. One of the methods includes obtaining information describing network traffic between a plurality of network devices within a network. A network topology of the network is determined based on the information describing network traffic, with the network topology including nodes connected by an edge to one or more other nodes, and with each node being associated with one or more network devices. Indications of user access rights of users are associated to respective nodes included in the network topology. User interface data associated with the network topology is generated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computerized method comprising:
by a computing device having one or more computer processors and a non-transitory computer readable storage device storing software instruction for execution by the one or more computer processors,
accessing:
network device information indicating one or more of:
configuration information of network devices within a network, or
a network topology indicating communication paths between network devices determined using, at least, monitored network traffic between the network devices; and

user account information indicating:
user access rights of respective user accounts, and
one or more of:
profile information of respective user accounts,
user account rules enforced on the network, or
network actions associated with the user accounts;

for each of the network devices and user accounts:
determining a vulnerability indicating a likelihood of the network device or user account being compromised, the vulnerability based on values of a plurality of vulnerability metrics determined using network device information associated with the network device or user account information associated with the user account;
determining an importance indicating a priority an attacker would place on compromising the network device or the user account, the importance based on values of a plurality of importance metrics determined using network device information associated with the network device or user account information associated with the user account;

providing, for presentation, an interactive user interface comprising a visual representation of:
at least some of the determined vulnerabilities for the network devices and/or the user accounts;
at least some of the determined importances for the network devices and/or the user accounts,
wherein the interactive user interface is operable to modify, in response to received input indicating a weighting for one or more network device, user account, vulnerability metric, or importance metric, the determined vulnerabilities and/or importances, included in the interactive user interface;

receiving, in the interactive user interface, input associated with modifying an adjustable user interface element indicating a time period associated with determining vulnerabilities and determining importances; and
updating, in the interactive user interface based on the indicated time period, the visual representation, thereby presenting increases or decreases in respective vulnerabilities or importances, for the network devices and/or the user accounts.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, for presentation, selectable options associated with creating a vulnerability metric or an importance metric, the selectable options including indications of aspects of network devices or user accounts to be associated with the created vulnerability metric or importance metric; and
receiving selections of indications of aspects, and values associated with respective aspects, wherein the values indicate conditions that are to be satisfied for the vulnerability metric or importance metric to be associated with an effect on a vulnerability or an importance.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving information associated with an effect of the created vulnerability metric or importance metric when determining a vulnerability or an importance, the information specifying a weighting to be applied a value of the created vulnerability metric or importance metric.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interactive user interface includes a search user interface element, and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a search query specifying aspects of network devices or user accounts; and
filtering the network devices or user accounts based on the aspects specified in the search query, and presenting network devices or user accounts that are associated with the specified aspects.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
monitoring received search queries, and sharing one or more received search queries with an outside system associated with a different network, wherein the outside system determines vulnerabilities and importances for network devices and/or user accounts that are associated with the different network, and wherein the received search queries filter the network devices and/or user accounts based on respective specified aspects.

6. A computerized method comprising:
by a computing device having one or more computer processors and a non-transitory computer readable storage device storing software instruction for execution by the one or more computer processors, the computing device and a plurality of network devices coupled to a network;
obtaining, by the computing device via the network, configuration information describing at least some of the network devices within the network;
determining, from the configuration information and for at least one network device, one or more metrics measuring aspects of a network device compromise vulnerability of the network device;
obtaining indications of user access rights of user accounts to respective network devices;
determining, for each network device and using the user access rights and configuration information, one or more metrics measuring aspects of a network device compromise value of the network device; and
determining, for at least one user account, one or more metrics measuring aspects of a user account compromise vulnerability, and one or more metrics measuring aspects of a user account compromise value.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
generating user interface data for presentation, the user interface data comprising a visual representation of one or more of:
network device compromise vulnerabilities mapped to corresponding network device compromise values, or
user account compromise vulnerabilities mapped to corresponding user account compromise values.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the visual representation associated with network devices comprises a chart mapping, for each network device, a network device compromise vulnerability to a network device compromise value of the network device, the mapping for the network device comprising a visual element included in the chart.

9. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
obtaining information identifying a real world event that informs or affects one or more metrics associated with user account compromise vulnerabilities and/or network device compromise vulnerabilities, the information associated with a portion of configuration information and/or user account information; and
modifying compromise vulnerabilities of user accounts and/or network devices with same user account information and/or configuration information as the obtained information.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
generating user interface data illustrating the modification.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein determining, for a particular network device, a metric measuring an aspect of a network device compromise value of the particular network device comprises:
obtaining information describing network traffic between the network devices;
determining, based on the information describing network traffic, a network topology of the network, wherein the network topology comprises a plurality of nodes each connected by an edge to one or more of the plurality of nodes, wherein each edge indicates a communication path, and wherein each node is associated with one or more network devices;
determining a number of edges connecting to a node associated with the particular network device; and
assigning a value associated with the metric base

Assignees

• Palantir Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Seiver Miles
• Cohen Stephen

Classifications

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• H04L45/02

  Topology update or discovery · CPC title

• H04L63/102

  Entity profiles · CPC title

• H04L41/0866

  Checking the configuration · CPC title

• H04L63/1433 Primary

  Vulnerability analysis · CPC title