Anonymizing Network Configuration Files for Cloud Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge is to enable the use of cloud-based services for analyzing firewall, router, and switch configurations while protecting sensitive IP address configuration information from unauthorized access.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves anonymizing IP address configuration files before transmission to cloud-based services, using algorithms that preserve 'range-intersection' properties essential for connectivity analysis. This ensures that the cloud-based engine processes anonymized configurations without knowledge of the original IP addresses, ports, and protocols, maintaining privacy throughout the analysis process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If cloud-based services are used for analyzing firewall, router, and switch configurations, then comprehensive connectivity analysis and identification of security policy deviations are improved, but sensitive IP address configuration information is exposed to unauthorized access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by anonymizing IP addresses in configuration files before transmission to the cloud-based service. The anonymization process replaces actual IP addresses with anonymized representations while preserving the structural relationships needed for connectivity analysis. This preliminary transformation allows the cloud service to perform comprehensive analysis without accessing sensitive real IP address information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary anonymization layer between the configuration files and the cloud-based analysis service. The anonymized configuration files serve as a mediator that preserves the necessary structural information for connectivity analysis while blocking direct access to sensitive IP address data. The anonymization mapping allows results to be de-anonymized later without the cloud service ever seeing the actual IP addresses.
2Reliability
If IP addresses are anonymized before transmission to cloud-based services, then privacy of sensitive information is preserved, but the cloud-based engine cannot process the configurations without knowledge of original IP addresses, ports, and protocols
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by transforming IP addresses into anonymized representations that preserve the relational structure needed for connectivity analysis. The anonymization process maintains the topological relationships between network elements while changing the actual IP address values. This allows the cloud-based engine to process the anonymized configurations using the same algorithms it would use on original configurations, as the structural relationships are preserved.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates anonymized copies of the configuration files that retain the structural information necessary for analysis. The anonymized configuration files are copies that preserve the network topology, connectivity relationships, and policy structures while replacing actual IP addresses with anonymized placeholders. The cloud-based service processes these copies without accessing the original sensitive data, and the results can be mapped back to the original configuration.
Data Source
AI summary
Anonymizing systems and methods comprising a native configurations database including a set of configurations, a key management database including a plurality of private keys, a processor in communication with the native configurations database and the key management database, and a memory coupled to the processor. The set of configurations includes one or more textual descriptions and one or more ranges, wherein each range includes a contiguous sequence comprised of IP addresses, port numbers, or IP addresses and port numbers. The processor is configured to retrieve the set of configurations from the native configurations database, wherein the set of configurations includes a plurality of objects; retrieve a private key from the key management database; assign a unique cryptographically secure identity to each object; and anonymize the plurality of objects based on the cryptographically secure identities and the private key. The present system prevents retrieving the textual descriptions and the ranges of the configuration files of the native configuration database from the anonymized configuration database